


Canines Are Always a Man’s Best Friend

by Maruna



Series: Of Gods and Spirits [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Cannon Divergent, Depression, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Friendship is Magic, Gen, Genji was once very very insensitive, Hanzo is a gamer, Hanzo should have a service dog so I gave him one, Implied Suicide Attempt, M/M, McCree can be an ass sometime, Mild Gore, More to be added as chapters progress, Multi, Mutual Pining, References to Depression, Some angst sprinkled through everything, Supernatural Elements, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2018-12-02 09:57:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 76,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11507022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maruna/pseuds/Maruna
Summary: Sometime the help you need doesn't come in conventional shape or size. For Hanzo, he got his first help after years of exile.And a second one came to him on a clear night in Hanamura, with an offer that can change things for the better.(Basically I believe Hanzo need a service dog and a friend that kick his ass into action, so I inserted that.)





	1. Sometime a Wolf forgets they are not a Puppy

The door opened silently. Yui’s ears perked up and she quickly dashed out from her hidden place underneath the bed to greet the archer. Her greeting was to jumping up and slamming her huge wolf frame on the man, almost knocking him over. Hanzo had told her many times he doesn’t appreciate being greeted with a massive wolf licks when he came back to his room – at this point he was certain his complaints had fallen on deaf ears.

He huffed and pushed the wolf off of him. Yui doesn’t seem to mind his refusal and happily jumped up on to the bed, bouncing a little and making the bed creak in protest. Her excitement only died down when she noted his expression. Normally he already had a constant scowl and glare combo, but this time he looked pensive, confused and so _anxious_. Swiftly she hopped off of the bed again to dig into the rucksack, she gripped the phone gently and plopped it down on the bed next to Hanzo.

For a long while he just sat on the bed and stared at the phone. The wolf rolled her eyes in annoyance before barking straight at his face and nudging the phone to his hand. With a sigh he opened up the phone, speed dialing the first number and putting it on speaker. Instantly the call went through and a woman’s voice filled the empty room.

“Do not complain about how she jumps you whenever you come back.”

Hanzo just let out an exhausted sigh and said nothing. He just climbed completely on the bed, not caring he still has his outside clothes and prosthetics on. Yui just took this as a chance to flop on to his legs completely, she also nudged his hand to get him to let go of his bow.

“What’s wrong? You are broodier than usual.”

There was a long silence, but she was used to it. Hanzo always had trouble saying what was on his mind. She just learned to let him mull it over and let him find his words, however long it may take him.

Which could seem like hours...

Hanzo had barely moved from his position. Yui had to shift a few times to make sure she didn’t cut the blood flow with her weight or get cut by his prosthetics legs accidentally. Finally, just as she decided to switch her method, he answered.

“My brother is alive,” he said softly, as if he couldn’t believe what he just said.

The surprise was shared though. Yui lifted her head and stared at the archer.

“What?”

“He- He is alive...” He swallowed, trying to ease down the lump in his throat. The wolf slumped herself further up his body, pushing the archer down on the bed, tail wagging in excitement.

“And? And? Did he say something else?” Her voice sounded excited, but as she was greeted with silence again she huffed. It is time for the guessing game she supposed.

“Did something else happened?” she asked. Hanzo flinched and tried to push the large wolf off of him. But Yui just shifted her frame to get him to lie down.

“You attacked him again?” she asked, voice soft with no hint of surprise. At that Hanzo stopped struggling and curled around the wolf, face buried in the dark fur. His grip on her coat was a bit painful, but Yui made no sounds.

“Didn’t know it was him at the time,” he mumbled, she could feel him trembling. “Could hardly recognise him underneath all that... all that...”

She didn’t ask further. Yui let out a soft rumble, shifting so both of them would be in a more comfortable position. Letting him sitting up and hug the wolf proper, like a child holding on to his favourite toy for comfort. Idly he scratched underneath her chin, feeling the coarse fur on his skin.

After a few more deep breaths he continued. “He... He said he has forgiven me.”

“That’s good isn’t it?” She said gently. “It’s time to mend bridges.”

“I don’t think I-”

“Genji obviously thinks you do. Why else did he come to you tonight? Out of all nights?”

Every year he returned home to Hanamura on this night. She did not follow him into his old home, he didn’t want her there and she respected that. So Yui contended herself with staying at the safe house, only going out if he took far too long in returning. It only happened twice so far, charging straight through the front door with fangs bared and ready.

Hanzo sighed, not knowing how to respond. He buried his face back into her fur again. Yui sighed and waits, she kind of wished she followed him out tonight. At least to see what actually happened, to see what became of this Genji that she heard so much about. As much as he was willing to share when he wasn’t feeling overwhelmed with guilt.

“So what else? What else did Genji said?” she asked. Trying to push a little more information out, just so she could find some ways to help him.

Slowly he pull his face out, his voice was so soft she could barely hear his answer. “He- He also asked me to join him... To join Overwatch.”

She made a surprised sound. “I thought they were permanently disbanded.”

The news of the Swiss headquarter explosion went far and wide, and so did the ruling that followed after. Personally she believed it was just politicians fearing a group they have very little control of. She did not go as far as believing in those conspiracy theories that cropped up soon after, but she definitely does not believe whatever the news reports to her.

“Apparently not...”

“Cool! Nice to see a vigilante organisation not tied to any government. Less camera time as well, which is good for you.” She knew that ever since he left his clan, there was an onslaught of other assassins trying to kill him. They were not very good at finding him, but it was always best to not make it easier for them.

Hanzo made no comment and laid down on his side on the bed. Yui shifted off his leg and lay beside him. She also wiggled underneath his arm so he would remember to scratch behind her ear from time to time. They settled down with the silence. Both of them lost in their respective thoughts.

After a short while she piped up again. “I think you should take his offer.”

Instantly Yui felt him curl up tighter, his hand that was petting her head softly stopped.

“I-” He took a shaky breathe. “I don’t know if I deserve this.”

“That is not really your call.” She huffed. “Just give this a go. What do you have to lose in this offer?”

She couldn’t really see but she could imagine his worried stare. It wasn’t hard to imagine what was going through his head either. Yui shifted a little so she could give soft licks to Hanzo’s cheek.

“Don’t worry. Yui will be with you. You can’t get rid of the wolf no matter what.”

Hanzo snorted, pushing the snout away from his face. “I am not sure they would let a dog on a vigilante military base.”

Yui let out an indignant bark. “A wolf! No dog can get to this mighty size!”

Finally that wrung a laugh out of Hanzo – even if it was full of sarcasm. “That sounds even worse.” He could already imagine the surprised face at some of the other members at the sight of a black wolf that was up to his waist, with a horrible habit of smiling with all the sharp teeth showing. Thank goodness when they arrived at the safe house it was nighttime and no one was awake to see Yui coming in.

The wolf rolled her eyes. “Look assassination jobs come and go. You practically need to run after every mark.” And she was not about to get into the amount of times that were too close for comfort and forced them to lay low in the wilderness for a good long while to recover.

“This. This gives you something to do with your skill. Something good!” Yui gets up, bouncing on the bed. “Hanzo. Just try. Even if it’s just to see your little brother again, just try it out.”

Hanzo was silent. She was almost worried she said the wrong thing. It sometimes happened, considering she spent most of her life among wolves in the wilderness, she could say some stupid things that made the archer clam up and refuse to speak again for a few hours or so. Worst case scenario, Yui had to spend the rest of the night making sure he won’t end up drunk and passed out somewhere on the streets.

Finally Hanzo sat up. “Okay. Okay...” He said, voice calm but it was easy to see that his hands were shaking.

Yui watched with wagging tail as he shut off the call and opened up the messages. In a few moments there was a reply.

They sent back the time and coordinates of where they will be picked up and fly to Gibraltar base.

She hoped that this would be a good step forward for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks and hugs to [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) for betaing this. I know you saw soooo many grammar mistakes... orz


	2. Running with the Wolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet and greet wasn't always a friendly affair...

At the agreed time and place, Hanzo stood in the shadow of the building. Yui was by his feet, her ears twitching back and forth for any particular sound. The place was not as deserted as he had hoped. On the contrary it was in the middle of a busy marketplace. There were people coming and going everywhere; stopping to talk or tugging their companions away from stores. It was driving Hanzo’s nerves crazy.

He couldn’t stop checking the time again and again, rereading all the messages, trying to make sure he was at the right place and time. Hanzo was certain that most of his phone’s battery power was gone because of that. Even though he was well aware that he had come few hours before the agreed time. His excuse was to ‘scout the area’, but that only took two hours off the five hour waiting time.

Yui was very unimpressed, but she did not wander away, sticking by his side for the whole entire waiting period.

Several times he thought about up and leaving the area, forgetting about Overwatch and just laying low in the wilderness and isolation again. However whenever he tried to take several steps away from the area, Yui would always growl and press close to his sides, pushing him around with her bulk. It prevented him from moving far and it was getting a little annoying that she would immediately nudge at his hand after for head scratches. Although, he was thankful that this slowed his heart and stopped those thoughts from running rampant.

After a few more hours of waiting, Yui barked in excitement and bounced on the spot.

Hanzo could see them in the distance mingled in the crowd. A group of three trying to look incognito and barely succeeding. Genji would have stood out the most if it wasn’t for a good population of omnics around. He still wore clothes over his white metal armour, but his face plate was off and he was looking straight at him. His chest tighten as he watched his little brother smiled at him, crooked and lined with scar – all his fault.

Yui head-butted his side, almost knocking him over. Hanzo scowled and looked down to see the wolf giving her cheeky grin. She promptly trotted forward, weaving past the crowds and began circling around Genji and his group. The girl yelped at the sight of the wolf, but soon warmed up to her, even started to give her pats and head scratches. The other man, who wore a strange mask that completely covered his face, merely grunted and ignored the wolf altogether. Or at least tried to, Yui ran in front of his leg playfully, almost tripping him up and making the girl laugh.

Eventually Yui broke off from playing and led them towards Hanzo, who hadn’t moved from the original spot. She went back to him nudging him to try and get him to move. Somehow between the time she went off to greet the group and coming back, he has become petrified. She couldn’t push him to move no matter how hard she tried.

Thankfully Genji made the first move. “Hello Brother.”

His brother’s voice was so familiar, even with a synthetic undertone. This was definitely Genji. There was no more doubt, he had stayed alive as a reminder for his failure. Hanzo took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Hello,” he replied. He knew his voice was a little strained. He was trying. It was hard to look at his mistake – his sin.

The girl moved up next holding out her hand in a friendly gesture. “Hiya! I’m Lena nice to meet you!” He shook her hand, noted how she pulled away just as quickly. “This sourpuss here is Soldier: 76. He doesn’t want to give his real name.”

Hanzo lift an eyebrow, but did not question it. Considering this new Overwatch is a more vigilante organisation, he can expect people to want to keep their identity secret.

“Are you gonna tell us about this one?” 76 asked, pointing at the panting wolf circling through the group.

Hanzo quickly grasped for her scruff, hauling her back a little. She still strained against him, trying to run off again. “This... This is Yui. She has been with me for a few years.”

Genji was obviously surprised. “I didn’t expect you to have a companion.”

“She follows. Won’t go away no matter what I do.”

Yui barks in confirmation, already looking far too pleased herself. The bright side was that Genji seemed to be enamoured with her, ruffling her fur and just laughing as the wolf pounced on him and gave enthusiastic licks to his exposed face. Hanzo couldn’t help but smile at the scene as well.

Lena crouched down next to her, scratching her neck and cooing to the canine. “Awwww! She is adorable! What kind of dog is it?”

At that Yui growled and pulled back, completely retreating to behind Hanzo’s spindly leg. Lena looked so hurt and confused.

“She is a wolf. Not sure which breed.” He explained plainly. Yui growled unhappily and stalked behind him. “She also gets offended when she is called a dog.”

The old soldier chuckled a little. “She is very smart for an animal.”

“Too smart sometimes,” Hanzo mumbled to himself. Yui just huffed behind him and returned to circling around the group.

She remained well-behaved on their way to the airport. No longer running off and sticking close by him. The only time she left was when they get to the gate. She gave a light nibble to Hanzo’s fingers as an indication before vanishing completely from sight. No one else seemed to notice her disappearance until they got near security.

“Hold it! How are we going to sneak her past the security?” Lena asked, looking around to see how many security guards are around them. As well as looking for that one guard that let them through without question.

“Leave her behind,” said 76. Lena looked completely heartbroken at the suggestion.

“She has already left.” Hanzo replied evenly.

Finally the group looked around for the large wolf. They couldn’t see Yui anywhere, and that shouldn’t be possible. Such a large wolf and they are in a crowded airport. Sure they are near a side door and were heading for a private landing bay, but _still_!

They all turned to Hanzo for answers. He just shrugged. “I expect her to be already on the plane.”

True to his words, by the time they got on to their plane, the wolf was waiting for them at the door. Looking absolutely smug at the surprised faces all around, only Hanzo seemed to be used to this.

It wasn’t the first time Yui did this. Since they first met in Hanamura, she has accompanied him to many different countries. When they had to leave the country for another, they all had to sneak on to the transport rather than trying to go towards the front. The process was made easier with her uncanny ability to disappear and reappear at will. It disturbed him a lot at the start, but soon grew used to it. After all, she has chosen to stay by his side despite what he has done.

The flight was a quiet one. Genji chose to sit next to him and they quietly converse in their native language. They talk about nothing in particular, sometime it was nostalgic moment that drew out a small chuckle from him, but otherwise it was fairly mundane chatter. Hanzo noted that he tried not to talk much about the base or the people there, at most he told him not to mind when people ignore him, as most of them are a bit wary of strangers. Yui settled underneath his chair, half of her huge frame poking out and resting between their legs. Occasionally she nudged towards one of the brothers begging for ear scratches, both of them happy to oblige.

At the base more greetings were exchanged with the members on base. Some were away on mission but there was still a wide variety of people. The most surprising things were the large gorilla who seemed to be their leader and an omnic monk, the one who Genji referred to as Master. Hanzo could feel his heart rate go up as his brother began to enthusiastically introduce them one by one. How many of them were from the original team? How many of them know what he had done to Genji? How close he was at murdering his own brother?

Yui quietly nudged his hand with her head, reminding him of her presence.

It was not difficult to tell which ones were from the original Overwatch. Other than the fact most of their faces are on posters everywhere. Hanzo could also feel a distinct chill at the older member of the Overwatch group - particularly the doctor and the weird cowboy. He didn’t expect anything less, really. After all, the doctor was the one that put his brother back together. She smiled but there was no warmth behind it and often glanced towards Genji. He wondered if his brother had asked them to be civil around him or something. Probably, even though he didn’t need to.

As for the cowboy – whose name was McCree – he has no clue why he seemed to hate him more than the others. Didn’t even shake his hand, just gave a curt nod and hung around the back of the group. Within a few moments he disappeared completely. Hanzo couldn’t help but wonder where he went.

Yui never left his side, acting friendly to the members - mostly to Mei and Hana, the two girls immediately cooing and scratching the wolf, the easiest way to gain her favour. Otherwise she stuck close to his side, always within his arm reach and sometimes would nudge him forward if he hesitated. She practically head-butted him forward when it came to the omnic monk.

He was soon allowed rest and explored the area somewhat, as soon as he settled a time for an overall health check-up, as well as turning over some of his electronics. He had no problem turning over his phone or data pad. What was on there were things that they probably expect him to have. Targets and contracts, some news articles he saved; just basic information any hired assassin would have. The only thing that seems to cause trouble, was his personal phone.

They were all a little surprised the way Yui jumped up and tried to snatch the phone from Hanzo’s hand. His reflex was faster and he quickly swapped it to another hand while pushing the wolf back down. She still whined and barked, trying to get the phone back but was constantly held back by the archer. She looked back at Hanzo with pleading eyes, but he glared back unamused.

She remained sulky as they explored the compound, pointedly pretending to be uninterested in the head scratches and just walking next to him as he wandered around the base. He went from his given quarters to the outside and through various cargo bays and holds, memorising each corridor and exit. So in time if he had to leave in the middle of the night, he would always find a path.

Most of them seemed abandoned. Layers of dust were on all the boxes and there was a distinct smell of mold that made Yui back off and sneeze. He wondered if he could salvage a futon or something similar around here.

Just as he was thinking about turning in, missing dinner because he still felt a little nauseous and wanted to avoid people for now, Yui started growling softly, her ear flattened back and all her teeth bared. Someone was here, hiding purposefully. But before he could consider his escape route, he was already there. McCree appear around the corner, his gun barrel raised and pointed towards him.

Yui barked, her hunches were raised and immediately stood between them. Hanzo immediately grabbed the scruff of her neck, trying to prevent her from lunging herself at the cowboy. His other hand hovered over the small throwing knife to the side pouch. He expected traps for him, but not at the base. He imagined someone ambushing them at the meeting spot, someone other than his brother coming and they would need to fight. Not like this...

They stared at each other for a good long while. Then the cowboy finally spoke. “What are you doing here Shimada?”

Confused, Hanzo glanced at Yui briefly – tightening his hold at the same time – before he replied. “I was allowed to see the facilities and-”

“Nah. I meant what are you doing here. At Overwatch. Ya know the one that dismantled your pretty little empire.”

Hanzo looked away. He doesn’t know how to answer that. The brand on his shoulder seemed to burn again.

“It was a real shitty thing you did to your kin. We practically had to scrape him off the floor to have enough of him to save. Don’t think a place of heroes need a killer like you.” He drawled smoothly, just as he walked forward gun still pointing at his forehead. Hanzo was beginning to feel the strain of holding back Yui who had gone to full on snarling at the gunslinger. He looked at him, his passive face not showing a single shred of fear that was brewing in the back of his mind.

Of course he would deserve this. To die at the hands of his team mates, who obviously have treasured him more than he has, it would only be natural. He wondered briefly if Genji would know about this. He doesn’t expect them to tell him, and maybe it would all be for the better.

However, just as sudden as he appeared, McCree lowered his gun.

“Only reason I didn’t pull that trigger is because Genji is my best bud and for some reason he wanted to give you a chance.” He snorted. “Not that you deserved any of it.”

Yui barked at him, her form seems to melt and shift as she grew larger, black claws beginning to dig into the concrete. Hanzo tugged on coat, she looked back to see him shaking his head. The wolf huffed, but looking back the gunslinger already left.

“He is not wrong you know.” Hanzo said and patted her sides.

She growled unhappily, snout nudging at the pouch where the phone was. It wasn’t there anymore, but Hanzo know what she wanted him to do.

He sighed softly and shook his head. There was no reason to agitate the other members by stealing from them, even if it was his to begin with. Not to mention that right now he didn’t want to hear about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) for looking through this before hand  
> <3


	3. The Wolf Out in the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Yui meet more people.

It was the first night at the base and Yui took it upon herself to scout out the whole place. When they arrived earlier, they only looked at the quieter parts of the base, away from living quarters and other members. She figured Hanzo was already overwhelmed with so many new people, it would be better to just stroll around in a quieter area. Or at least she’d hoped so, until that asshole showed up in the storage room.

Considering Hanzo was going to get tied up later with a health check-up and then having all his electronics scrutinized, he would probably be too exhausted to scout the rest of the base himself. Most likely he would sleep the moment he was sure the room was secure and free of any video cameras. He would leave the audio bugs alone; he knew he was not trusted here and he saw no harm in leaving those in place. 

The wolf was essentially free to roam the base by herself.

So when Hanzo entered the shower, Yui slipped out of his room - easily jumping up to press the keypad - and began to wander. She first went along all the halls that had no doors, almost running at full speed at some of the longer hallways. It might not be the best idea since her claws had very little traction on the smooth floor but the skidding around was kind of fun.

Which of course ended with her colliding with someone else.

Yui definitely saw him coming, but she was skidding too much. He saw her as well and managed to brake a little so he wouldn’t slam into her with full force. It still kind of hurt when they ended up lying on the floor in a tangle of limbs. 

“Woah there careful where you’re going!”

She apologized in the only way she could, licking his face and whining. The young man laughed and just patted her head.

“You’re the one the new archer brought? Hana was raving about you so much!” He ruffled her fur and pinched her cheek. “Should you be running around alone like this?”

Yui huffed and immediately backed off of him. For some reason he was wearing skates indoors, that seemed a little bit too dangerous in her opinion but she can’t say anything. She’s a wolf!

Quickly she picked a direction and ran off, not minding the other guy who was now following behind her. She just wanted a good layout of the base. She didn’t really know how it turned into a game of tag. He first caught her while she was exploring the kitchen, booping her nose and then running away. It prompted her to chase him in return and she caught him just outside the med bay, playfully head-butting his sides before running off again. He was fast as well; the music playing from his back pack allowed him to easily keep up with her. Even though she was still difficult to catch, she easily slipped under furniture and had no qualms about jumping over other members to keep going forward. Once she even turned an entire 360 degrees by bounding right off the wall!

Thanks to that she found out where most others were sleeping, other supply closets, and even an archive room! She doubted it was completely unguarded with no security at the terminal, but at least there was a place to go if they needed some information they couldn’t get by asking around.

Somehow through all the running, she ended up in the recreation room. A pretty cosy one at that. There was a large TV on one wall and another large bookcase on the other – overflowing with books! She knew Hanzo would appreciate that. Just as much as he would appreciate a cupboard of old game consoles. Some were so ancient they seemed to be from the year 2000. She wanted to rummage through them and see what games they had, but not with this many people here!

There was Mei: she liked her because she gave soft and gentle pets, also always cooing to her as if she were a child. Angela the doctor was also there. Yui was a little wary of her, but that was just her with any doctors. Field medics were okay, they were always helpful, but doctors. Doctors who had worked in a lab, in a clean hospital, in a place sterilised and lifeless – she just didn’t trust them.

Some more people were around that she didn’t see earlier. There was a little short man, fiddling with a strange crab like arm. He was talking to a man that seemed to tower above them all. An old lady sat in the armchair with a cup of tea and a book. They were a bit too absorbed with what they were doing to notice her at the door way. That is until the man caught up with her.

“Hey guys look who I just met!”

Mei looked up, just in time to get a face full of wolf slobber. “Yui? Should you be that far away from Shimada-san?” She asked while trying to push her off her face.

The little man seemed to be the least impressed. “You let him bring a dog to the Watchpoint?”

“According to Lena she just let herself on the plane... Somehow?” Angela said. All the while giving her some much appreciated ear scratches.

The largest man made a loud booming laugh. “That’s a very smart dog.”

At that Yui had enough. She huffed and move out of their reach, going as far as running under the couch, shuffling back as they tried to reach for her.

Mei was confused and crouched down next to the couch looking at the wolf. “Did we say something?”

“It’s a bloody hound, she can’t understand what we’re saying.”

Yui really hoped they would never realise the truth. It would not only be an awkward affair, it would also mean she would be denied head scratches for a long time.

“If we weren’t desperate for another sniper he wouldn’t be here either.” The small man muttered under his breath. Unfortunately it was still loud enough for the boy to hear.

He skated over to the couch, curiosity evident on his face. “What do you mean?”

The doctor chewed her lip and tried to signal the others to stop the conversation, but the short man ignored her entirely.

“That man did some pretty horrible things to Genji.” He said flatly. “There was a reason we got a half-machine instead of a boy there.”

At that the old lady finally looked up. “Torbjorn! That was a private matter.”

However the damage was done. Mei looked absolutely horrified and so was the boy. The big man merely shook his head and patted the doctor’s shoulder, who has just buried her face in her hand. Yui growled at the little man, but he didn’t seemed to be scared by her.

“Look we should probably not expect the guy to stick around for too long. He’ll probably high-tail the moment he got what he wanted out of here.”

“For once I agree with ya.” An unwanted voice sounded from behind her. She looked up to see the cowboy coming up behind.

The moment Yui saw the man she snarled softly and went away from the room. Thankfully no one noticed her slipping out, leaving her free once again to roam the grounds.

For the rest of the night she wandered the base, noting where everyone’s bedroom was and if there was any balcony and window. She also wandered outside out in the wilderness, looking to see where the dock was and how far away from mainland they are. There was also a tunnel she found and she guessed it was meant to be a secret entrance to the mainland that doesn’t have to go through a boat. It was quite heavily guarded with sensors so she couldn’t go further in to see.

Athena’s drones were everywhere. She had trouble avoiding their gaze, no doubt Winston and 76 were probably reviewing footage of her wandering the whole base. However they would probably never see her going into places that seemed impossible for a wolf. It would be for the better. She also needed to see if she could convince the AI to ignore her entirely.

By the time she went back to Hanzo’s room it was near midnight. He was already asleep in bed, so she didn’t bother him further, just quietly hopped on to the bed and laid down next to him. She set her head on his waist where she could feel the first tremors of a nightmare and act accordingly. She also nudged his prosthetic legs into a more relaxed position; she would have pulled the whole thing off if it wouldn’t have caused the archer to jerk awake and lash out. Mentally she noted the need to remind him to take them off. They weren’t meant to stay on him for this long.

She fell asleep wondering if this place would actually be good for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much thanks to [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) for reading through this   
> o wo)b


	4. A Talk by the Cliff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone needed to vent

Hanzo could tell Yui was getting really irritated.

She was normally quiet and would listen to instructions, something that was well received by most people at the Watchpoint. Now she would scoff and stay defiant at any little command. Like lying on the couch and refusing to move until Reinhardt came over and hauled her off by the scruff, since he was the only one large enough to completely lift her off the ground. She also stole some food from the trays, which earned some disapproving glares from Ana. She didn’t steal anymore if the woman was in the kitchen.

Lastly she was absolutely hostile to McCree and Torbjorn. Yui made no secret that she disliked the two – though most particularly the cowboy – often openly growling and snarling at them the moment they entered her line of sight. Even if she was rolling around and licking other people, she would stop immediately and run away from either of them. Most other members attributed it to Torbjorn’s usual unfriendly attitude or McCree smoking too much and the scent scaring her off. Hanzo didn’t want to correct them on the latter.

There was no point in stirring up trouble by telling them what the gunslinger has said to him. He doubted anyone would believe him anyway. McCree was always charming and nice to other members of the group, sometimes overly flirty. He knew none of it would ever be directed towards him. It was fine. At least there was no repeat of that meeting anymore, the gunslinger just settled with ignoring his presence. Sometimes there was some not-so-friendly jabs towards him when he spoke up during the training sessions Winston organised, but he probably shouldn’t speak up so often anyways so it was fine.

He would have to talk to her about this behaviour though. But for now she couldn’t contact him in any other way. The phone was her only method in talking to him without people finding out about her secret. She usually would be very strict on how to contact him, but judging by how irritated Yui was getting, he suspected she would break her own rule sooner or later.

It was absolutely no surprise to find Yui taking one of his sonic arrows, staring at him right in the eye, and then running off.

Hanzo rolled his eyes before chasing after the wolf. Out of the building and to the surrounding cliffs, down one of the steepest side and towards a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. If he didn’t have the training from his youth it would have been difficult to traverse the terrain. The rocks were smoothed by the waves and covered in slippery algae . He was very glad that his prosthetics came with some pad attachments to prevent slipping.

Yui had no trouble, bounding from one rock to another with light paws, almost as if she was walking on air. She looked rather like a mountain goat as she scaled up and down the near vertical cliff with no trouble. She even made footholds where her claw dug into the cliff face. She waited for him at a cliff edge, lying down on her stomach and looking out into the ocean. Athena’s drones passed by with a light hum.

He picked up the arrow and sat down next to her. Yui let out a sigh and said, “I know the layout roughly now. There are some cameras here hidden in the rocks and recording all the time along with some thermals, but no audio. Same goes for Athena’s drones.”

“So not bothering to use the phone anymore?” Hanzo asked. He didn’t want to know how she knew the patrol routes so fast. A good guess was that she was eavesdropping on conversation as she wandered the base. It still surprised him somewhat since she spent so much effort in setting up a system to conceal her identity. Now she just practically declared openly that she was not a normal wolf.

She let out a very annoyed huff and curled up on the ground. “Well considering they probably won’t give it back for a few more days, I don’t think I have a choice at all.” She grumbled. “Plus I need to get this off my chest.”

“Are you going to transform again?” He did wonder if she was going to go all the way and change to something else, maybe to a bird or a butterfly, something small and innocuous that she could wander around the base more easily as. Considering she already built herself a repertoire of appearing and disappearing suddenly, he could explain her absence easily.

Yui just laughed. “No! I don’t want to risk Athena’s drones catching a glimpse of me changing. Remember the first time I did it you almost vomited?”

Hanzo winced. She had picked the worst time to change her form. He was recovering from a severe injury and everything was already making him feeling nauseous. Then he was treated with an image that was far too unsettling under normal circumstances.

“What do you need to say?” He asked, trying to get back to the original topic.

Yui jumped up and bounced around him, tails wagging. “There are a lot of books in the rec room,” she said. “And I think I spotted a working Wii U in there. Wanna play Smash Mario Brawl later?”

Hanzo sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That is not what you wanted to talk to me about.”

“Weh.” She flopped back on the floor. After a long silence she said, “They are really wary of you. Both the older and the younger ones.” She kind of hoped that new people wouldn’t know the full history, at least not enough for them to avoid him like the plague.

He shrugged. “I expected that much.” From the way McCree had confronted him, he didn’t expect anything less really and it was everything he deserved as well. Even if Yui didn’t want to admit that fact.

“I wonder what has Genji told them.” She mumbled to herself.

It was understandable he would be really angry with being almost killed, but to what extent did he vent that to his team mates? Did he do nothing but openly resent his brother for the past few years? If that was the case, what was the point of asking him to join Overwatch?

Hanzo let out a small huff. “Probably that I am a stuck-up, kill-joy, know-it-all bastard... and brother-killer.” His voice trailed off at the end, going so soft that even with her superb hearing it was difficult to hear

Yui just sighed and rolled onto her back. “Well you are that, but I can blame that all on your shitty father.”

“They are still not wrong though... What I did was unforgivable.”

“But neither did you have any choice!” She shifted upright again, snout jabbing into his sides. “You were raised and groomed to be an heir. An heir to a large criminal empire no less! They did everything they could to ensure you would be just as traditionalist as they are.”

“Still I-”

“Hanzo stop.” She nuzzled her head at his sides, rumbling softly. “I know. But Genji has forgiven you. His words should be the ones that matter.”

He opened his mouth to protest something, but shut it quickly. There was nothing more to say. The logic was there, it was just hard to believe.

He sighed quietly and leaned back, instantly feeling the soft black fur on his back. Yui wiggled her head underneath one of his arms and rested it there. Soft rumbles came from her throat as they watched the sun slowly sink over the horizon.

They sat in silence for a long while, feeling the light sea breeze and the warm setting sun. When the chill of the night set in Hanzo started to try and get up. Yui followed up quickly and began the return trip with him.

“You know. I might decide to use another method of communication,” she said while trotting through the bushes. “Do you still have that notebook-” She saw that annoyed look from Hanzo and Yui couldn’t help but snort out a laugh. “What the hell am I talking about of course you do.” For someone that travelled with the bare minimum, he tended to hoard little things. Sentimental things, like a pouch of sparrow feathers and old game cartridges, along with some of her stuff since a wolf shouldn’t be seen with its own back pack so often. That drew attention that she didn’t want.

For now, the most important thing to her was to set up a new way to talk to Hanzo without people finding out it was with her, a wolf. “Soooo... Letters? I write on one page you write on another?”

“Might be good.” He would have to hide that book well. However since it wasn’t digital, there shouldn’t be anyone curious enough to go through it. Not to mention it would be good to practice each other’s language. He needed to learn more kanji and Chinese, while Yui need to practice her Japanese grammar.

She paused and glared at him, ears flipped back. “You are thinking on how to make it a lesson aren’t you?”

“You need the practice,” he said with a sly grin on his face.

Yui growled. “My Japanese ain’t that bad!”

“From the last text I got from you... So many grammar problems.”

She stuck out her tongue at him, before stopping in her track and barking three times. Hanzo stopped as well and looked around, Athena’s drone had just passed by. He sighed a little, knowing they were back to hidden communications again. He whistled a low note to indicate he understood and then continued on his way. Yui looked up a little, she could see someone watching them from the balcony. Before she can pinpoint their scent, they returned back inside. It might have been just her imagination, but she could smell a distinct scent of cigar and chilli spices.

Hopefully he didn’t see that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried subtlety and it didn't work out :U  
> All of you worked out Yui ain't normal by the first chapter orz
> 
> Loads of thanks to [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) ; w; <3
> 
> Next chapter might take a while. It is currently 3 times longer than most of my other chapters and I'm not too sure if it could be split down properly :"D


	5. Wolf Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A game of tag can be a very good bonding activity...

A few weeks passed since the talk by the cliffside.

Hanzo’s electronics were returned to him. He knew they may get suspicious at a weird phone call towards a private number. If they had called that number they would have found that it was answered immediately but no voice came from the other end. Yui set up a phone like this so that others can’t trace her. Her phone was hidden in random locations each time, and unless they actively tracked it during call, it would be impossible to find.

The only way for the call to go through was when she – as a wolf – handed him the phone. Only then would there be a voice that seems to come from the other end. Apparently throwing her voice was the only vocal talent she had. It was quite useful since she wanted her secrecy for as long as possible.

There were also some close calls. Mostly because Yui couldn’t control herself, when McCree made an off-handed comment on Hanzo – how killing each other seemed like part of Shimada tradition. She just blurted out, “Says the ass who forgot it’s not the Old West anymore.” Thankfully it was covered up by the fact that the television was on nearby and the dialogue somewhat fit, so most laughed it off as a coincidence.

Still, it was only a matter of time before someone got curious enough to try and get some answers. He fully expected Genji to do that. However Hanzo did not expect it to be so soon, and especially after he finished his personal training session at the shooting range by bodily blocking the only exit out of the range. Even with the face plate he could mentally see that shit-eating grin on his little brother’s face.

“Sooooo... Who was that person you’ve been calling for the last few years?”

Hanzo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He may have expected this, but he had no idea what to do. Other than actually letting the two have a conversation but honestly he didn’t even know if she would want to talk.

He figured the more pranks Yui did, the more annoyed she was. And she pulled a lot of pranks.

She claimed it was to reinforce her image as just a regular wolf, but Hanzo suspected it was to actually screw with people. She had gnawed on some furniture, purposefully nudged things off the table by bumping into them, and most particularly stealing from the kitchen table. Shamelessly she stole from the pots, the plates on table, and - when she felt mean enough - she would steal it straight from their hands. He didn’t believe her when she said that she wanted to share snacks with him. Because the most common thing she stole was chocolates; Hanzo didn’t like sweets and Yui got sick from eating it. Not to mention the chocolate always seemed to belong to McCree.

Either way, Hanzo took that as a hint that she probably didn’t want to talk them at all, as well as the fact that she was very angry. Not just towards the Overwatch group for acting so cold and distant around him, but also towards him for running away from it for as long as possible. For as much as he could, he avoided the shared meals, preparing his own and leaving the kitchen before anyone came in, or would even forego meals altogether sometimes. He also declined each and every invitation from Genji to join in a group activity outside of training. And he would always ghost out the room the moment he realised someone else was coming in.

It was made very clear as Yui had once written in the journal, in big bold letters with lots of scribbly underlines:  
STOP AVOIDING SOCIAL INTERACTIONS HERE! BEFORE I FORCE ONE ON YOU!

He knew that she wouldn’t really do that, but it did that she was very angry. Hanzo always found that it was nigh on impossible to talk to her when she was angry. Reason left her as she stormed around in a rage, yelling at nothing in particular in a language he couldn’t recognise. He always waited until she calmed down somewhat before talking to her.

They still went to the cliff regularly. It was the one place Yui felt was private enough that their conversation wasn’t so easily eavesdropped. Once they got the phone back it was also the place where they had their conversations. Sometime Yui forwent the phone method out of laziness and reassurance that the place is empty enough.

Still the problem at hand was the fact that Genji would probably not let this go and Yui probably did not want to talk to him. He needed to find some excuse to get his little brother to drop this subject.

However before he could even opened his mouth, the cyborg continued. “You know, the phone’s records show that you’ve called that person consistently for the last few years. But there was no record of them calling you back.”

Hanzo grimaced, he hoped that they didn’t check that far or the frequency. “Because she doesn’t like calling people.” he said, and regretted it instantly when Genji took off his mask to show that mischievous look in his eyes.

“Oh, they’re a she?”

“Genji-”

“Come on, call her! I promise I won’t make it embarrassing.” He tried not to show how excited he was, but it was hard not to bounce on the spot, just thinking of all the embarrassing stories of youth that he could tell to Hanzo’s friends. It might seem a little mean, but Genji was pretty sure his brother was one step ahead of him on that one.

Hanzo could only sigh into his hands. “It is not my call.”

Genji paused. “What? Wait, but _you_ call her.”

“If Yui didn’t hand me the phone, I won’t be able to reach her. She simply won’t answer.” That was if they could get their hands on the phone in the first place.

After getting the phone back from Winston, Yui had literally swallowed the phone to keep anyone from getting it. Good thing he really has no other use for that phone other than calling her. And even than he doesn’t really need to with the other method they established, so the phone may have been in her stomach for quite some time. How disgusting...

Genjji was still just confused. “Why does your dog dictate when you can call your friend?” Although to be fair, the wolf has always seemed to be extremely smart for some reason. She always seemed to understand the conversations around her. That or she was very well trained by someone, who probably wasn’t Hanzo...

“Wait! Does that mean Yui belongs to your friend?”

“Sort of.” Genji wasn’t wrong in a sense, the wolf form was as much a part of Yui as all her other forms. “As I said I cannot get rid of her even if I want to.”

“Now you just made me wonder if I can bribe Yui to fetch the phone for me. I know she’s been eyeing Reinhardt’s steak at the dinner table.” It was the funniest sight, seeing the wolf just putting her head on the dinner table and looking at the large man with big mournful eyes. Everyone can tell he was struggling not to give the wolf his steak – because too much cooked human food is not good for wolves – until Ana came over with a raw one to distract her.

Hanzo huffed, trying to hide his laugh. “I do not know if that would work-”

Suddenly they both heard soft pattering from behind. Yui came into view soon after with a phone in her mouth, tail wagging in excitement.

Hanzo blinked. “Well I guess...” Maybe he was wrong about what she was thinking. However if that was the case, he really hoped she would drop a lot of her pranks and maybe be a little less hostile to McCree.

“Good girl!” Genji immediately run forward and ruffled her fur. However when he tried to grab the phone, Yui pulled away quickly. The ninja was confused and moved forward trying to take the phone, only for the wolf to dash to the end of the corridor. She looked back at them, tail wagging and waiting for them to follow. Genji turned towards his brother.

“She is very peculiar.” It was also because Hanzo had no other answers that wouldn’t give her secret away.

Thankfully Genji did not press further. He did however look back at him with a grin. “Bet that I can catch her first.”

“Oh? You think you can beat me?” Hanzo smiled as he carefully stretched, testing the movement of his prosthetics. Knowing Genji he would bolt on his own accord and use his cybernetics to get an edge. He only had one other advantage. “I have spent several years chasing her down when she’s stolen stuff. Speed alone will never catch her.”

“We shall see brother.” With that he put on his face plate again and bolted down the corridor. Hanzo waste no time following behind.

Yui seemed to grin around the phone, waiting only until the brothers were close enough to her before she launched herself down the hallway. She was fast and unnaturally flexible, sometime almost cat-like in the way she bounded off walls to turn sharp corners.

Genji kept on chasing, barely keeping her in his sights. He didn’t even have time to look back to see how far behind Hanzo was. Half way through the chase he could no longer hear the rhythmic tapping from his brother’s metal feet anymore. Not to mention at the speed he was going it was difficult to do much other than run straight, and it did result in him crashing into some old furniture that was abandoned in the hallways.

Suddenly Yui leapt up, jumping straight through the open window. His stomach twisted. They were on the third floor, even a wolf of Yui’s size would be severely injured at that height, probably a lot of broken bones or worse - a broken neck. He sprinted the last few steps, jumping through the window as well. He hoped desperately that he could get to Yui in time to prevent her fall. However as he looked down she was already on the grass, unharmed and ready to run, only to be intercepted by Hanzo who came around the corner of the building.

She sank down on her stomach, dodging the swipe from the elder Shimada, and swiftly dashed underneath him. Instantly she was out of his arm reach. Hanzo hit the floor with a grunt and rolled back to his feet. Genji landed beside him softly. They both paused a moment to catch their breath and looked at each other.

Hanzo let out a small chuckle, hand reaching out to thumb the small scratches on the white armour. “You crashed into some furniture didn’t you?”

Genji jerked away but laughed as well. “And you went out of the first open window to try and intercept her. You sure you should put your prosthetic through that kind of landing?” It wasn’t hard to see some leaves and grass stuck on the spaces between the plating. And those things looked way too frail to hold up someone like him.

“They’ve suffered worse.” He turned to a nearby tree and looked up into the dark canopy. “Now we should probably coax her down the tree.”

Genji followed his line of sight and had to double-take. Yui was grinning at them from a tree branch, not one of the low hanging one either. She was rather high up and all they could see was the line of pearly white fangs holding onto the phone, a black swishing tail, and golden eyes staring right at them.

“How did she get up there?” he asked. A million questions filtered through his head and it was hard to keep up. There was something strange about Yui but he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“She climbed.” Hanzo was glad Genji’s back was towards him so he couldn’t see him biting his lip.

The cyborg whipped his head around, small steam come out from the vents and the spaces around the mask. “Okay Hanzo I can tell when you are just screwing with me.”

“I’m not. Honest.”

“How the hell does a dog climb trees?! Is she part cat or something?”

Hanzo was trying his hardest to not laugh out loud. By the annoyed noise Genji let out, he wasn’t doing so well. Through guessing, Genji did get pretty close to what she was though - still missed the mark by a kilometre.

Genji huffed, he would just have to make sure to ask more questions about the wolf when he got the chance. For now they had to catch her. “Well if she thought climbing could get her away from us- HEY!”

As he was speaking, there was a soft rustling as Yui managed to clamber higher up the tree. Small chips of wood and leaves showered on them as she continued to ascend.

“Might do better with less talking and more climbing,” said Hanzo as he quickly leapt onto the lower branches and began his own ascent.

“Oh shut up!” Genji double jumped on to a higher branch. “And I was the better climber.”

“I was the one that taught you how to climb.” He remembered how his younger brother would wail and cling to him until he agreed to teach him how to climb trees. It was more than annoying, so he just caved in and taught him how to climb, despite the horror of their attendants. They were so worried that something would happen to the precious little sparrow. It was worth it, since he could not deny the swell of pride seeing his little brother keeping up as they climbed higher among the pink petals.

He also can’t forget the fact Genji once climbed too high and was too scared to climb down. So he had to climb up and let Genji practically choke him as he carried his little brother down the tree.

Genji paused in his climbing to take off his mask, just so he could stick his tongue out at him. Hanzo laughed and doubled his efforts in climbing the tree. Unlike the sakura trees around their home, this tree has more densely packed branch and it was often difficult for Hanzo to go through the tangle of branches. Genji, being much smaller, easily slipped through and climbed higher faster, although he occasionally stopped in his tracks to taunt his brother playfully. He yelped when Hanzo leapt up past several branches to knock him lightly on his head.

Eventually they reached near the top and realised the wolf was no longer hiding among the tree branches. They soon spotted Yui waiting for them on a nearby rooftop. The phone was on the floor – covered in so much drool it was glistening under the sun – and she laid down next to it.

“Geez you sure are a hard one to catch.” Genji huffed as he landed near the wolf, and proceeded to sprawl on the ground, head resting on her back. Yui just made a weird hyena-like sound and licked his face plate. Hanzo just sat down on the side trying to shake off most of the slobber that was left on the phone. Then proceed to speed dial the number and put it on speaker.

As soon as the dial tone started Genji sat up straight, as well huffing at the knowing smirk on Hanzo’s face.

It only took a few rings till the dial tone stopped and the area fell into silence. Yui shifted her position a little to curl up tighter and wrapping her tail around herself. Genji looked towards Hanzo, but the older Shimada just nodded towards the phone.

Hesitantly he called out. “Hello?”

“Hello! Yui told me you are interested in talking to me.” A chirpy voice sounded out in the area, and in Japanese as well. Strangely accented, but it was still clear. Genji let out a small breath he wasn’t aware he was holding. The voice laughed a little. “And she also told me many interesting things about the base”

At that Genji has to ask the burning question: “Do you have like a psychic connection to your dog or something?”

He can’t think of any other reason for Yui’s seemingly increased intelligence and the fact that Hanzo had not called her once ever since he landed on base. However his answer came with an annoyed grumble.

“Wolf. But also you can say that.” Before Genji can asked another question, the voice quickly cut in. “So how are you, Hanzo? Settling in well?”

Hanzo grunts in confirmation. So far so good. He had memorised the whole base’s layout, gotten used to the communal kitchen appliances... especially how to use them without making any sound at late night or early in the mornings. It made skipping meals more manageable.

“Yui told me someone was harassing you.”

Hanzo flinched, this was one thing that he absolutely did not expect her to do. She must be really upset with McCree.

“No there was not.” He had to lie, he can’t let arguments start because of him, because of something this _petty_.

Unfortunately she was not deterred. “Genji, is he lying?” she asked.

“Well I wouldn’t call it harassment, but I was kind of hoping some people would not be so cold around you.” He turned towards Hanzo, rocking on the spot. “Could you please socialise with us someday so they won’t think you will kill them in their sleep?”

“If that were the case they would already be dead” Hanzo said flatly. Two groans sounded in the area.

“Hanzo you are not helping,” Genji sighed wanting to pinch the bridge of his nose but instead scraping his fingers along the face plate.

“Jeez what are you doing? Just being a hermit in the room?” She knew the answer, but she figured it would be best to pull it out in the open for him to hear.

“He definitely was since you keep blowing off movie nights.”

“Enough. Both of you.” Hanzo rubbed his forehead. “They do not want me there and I do not wish to intrude either.”

Genji snorted. “Okay that’s definitely not true. If Yui can just flop her fifty kilo of bodyweight onto Mei and Lena without warning during movie nights, they would not mind you sitting at the back in silence. Which I know you probably would still end up doing.”

Yui glanced at Hanzo. She could see his hand fidgeting, digging his fingernails into his palm to the point he broke his skin. His legs were twitching as well, already getting into a fight or flight response. She looked towards Genji. He didn’t really seem to notice how uncomfortable his brother was with this topic. Or maybe he didn’t understand why he was so uncomfortable at that thought.

“How about a compromise?” she said. “Hanzo I can tell you don’t like big crowds but Genji is right that you need to talk to people other than him and Yui. So if the next bonding time is less than four people you join in. Deal?”

It might not be the best idea to lay it out completely, but having the issue in the dark was the worst choice of all. At least right now Genji seemed to connect the dots, he took off his mask and laid a gentle hand on his brother.

Hanzo looked at his little brother briefly, before staring back at his hand. Yui got up and trotted over to his side, laying her head on his hand. A deep rumbling echoed from her. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Alright...”

Genji practically leapt up. “Promise?”

Hanzo chuckled at that response. “I promise,” he said softly.

“Pinky Swear Promise?”

“How old are you again?” Last he checked, Genji is only a few year younger than him. Not a few _decades_.

“But will you?” Genji hold out his pinky. Hanzo eyes went wide.

He chose Genji’s left hand, the part that was still left intact after the fight. Underneath that white armour and metal plating there was still flesh and blood. Thinking of the old tradition of this nursery rhyme, it seemed strangely fitting. Not only that but the way Genji bounced excitedly in front of him with pinky outstretched reminded him so much of their younger days.

Carefully he wrapped his own pinky around Genji’sand shook on it, both of them murmuring the old chant they sang when they are children. “ _Yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara hari senbon nomasu._ ”

Genji sat back down, looking infinitely satisfied. Hanzo could only shake his head with a smile. There were just some things that would never change he supposed.

“Nice to see it’s settled.” Yui let out a pleased rumble at the side.

“Okay but that means now I need to ask you some questions!” Oh he hadn’t forgotten the original purpose of the call. There might be a small derailment at the start but he needed answers.

“Eh sure. But just one, okay? I need to move again.” She could feel her hind leg getting numb, and it was getting tiring to throw her voice so it seemed to come from the phone. If she was with Hanzo alone, she wouldn’t have to be _this_ careful.

“How did you two meet?”

“I found Hanzo about to be executed with both his legs cut off.” She replied without any hesitation. She expected this question and had already prepared the answer in her head. “I don’t think they expected a giant wolf to suddenly barge in and tear everyone to shreds. After that I stuck- I had to make sure he recovered properly and got used to the prosthetics.” Yui sucked in a quick breath, that was too close of a slip on her tongue. Hopefully Genji did not notice.

“Wow... The Shimada gumis really don’t let up do they...” It was hard to imagine the amount of people needed to completely ambush his brother. Sure he managed that time, but to be fair he was a cyborg, he has enhancement that allowed him to cheat at that.

“I merely miscalculated their numbers, it was a rather big ambush.”

Yui didn’t want to point out that there were only three people there when she found him. It would be an unnecessary jab at his fragile pride and that really wasn’t what he needed now. He did need another kind of reminder.

“Then listen to Yui when she tries to take off your prosthetics. You are not supposed to wear them the whole damn day.” She sounded very annoyed and, to keep up the illusion, she barked several times.

Hanzo huffed and crossed his arm. “It’s fine. It does not pain me.”

“This is not something to be macho about. Just take them off before bed for fucks sake.”

He rolled his eyes. “Hmph... Fine.”

Genji laughed. “You sound like a mum. Or at least like what Anija and McCree describe a mum like.”

Yui sat up, ears perked up straight. “You don’t remember your own mum?” there was a hint of surprise from the voice.

“Hm? Well she did die when I was really young so I don’t remember her very well. I’m just basing this off what Anjia told me.” He shrugged. Most of his thoughts were on something else, it wasn’t really hard for him to notice that the voice didn’t seem to come from the phone for a moment. But where else could it come from? Hanzo’s voice was way too deep and even if he tried it would not sound like the girl just then. And Yui was a wolf, who ever heard of talking wolf?

“I see. Well okay then, gotta go! See ya~” Her voice dragged him back to the present briefly, coming straight from the phone again. It must be his imagination.

“Well that was interesting.” For a whole afternoon chasing a wolf across base and talking with the mysterious friend that had been with Hanzo for the last few years, there was no other way to describe it. However he was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get a lot of answers out of her.

Hanzo picked up the phone, shutting it off before handing it back to the wolf. “Hm. Yes, when she is not being stubbornly angry she is quite enjoyable to chat to.”

Genji stopped, realisation dawned on him. “Ahhhhh~ Crap! I totally forgot to ask for her name.”

“Hmm. Perhaps next time then.” Hanzo glanced at Yui a bit, she seemed happy. Perhaps she planned most of the conversation, not unlikely considering the way she derailed the conversation to him fast.

“Wait she never told you her name either?”

“No. So do tell me when you find out.” He glared at Yui a little, he sincerely hoped that she would not choose a ridiculous name like last time. It was both hard to pronounce and spell in English.

“Of course!” He said happily as they began to make their way back in the base. It was almost dinner time anyway, and he would probably have a lot of future chances to keep asking those questions. There was no rush. Well except for the fact Yui seemed to be the guardian to the phone.

“So if Yui hands me the phone do I get to call her?”

“If you wish. Just be careful when she starts to get angry.”

He didn’t know if she would want another chat soon. Not to mention he didn’t really understand her reason to taunt Genji into a chase when she could calmly walk into a secluded area. Regardless it felt good to talk with his brother again and play around like that, like the way they used to when they were much younger.

He missed that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> 指切拳万、嘘ついたら針千本呑ます "Yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara hari senbon nomasu"  
> It is a famous nursery rhyme from Japan, the pinky swear that usually seal the deal between two people and literal translation requires the liar to swallow a thousand needles. I seriously still remember chanting this in kindergarten until the teacher told me to stop.
> 
>  
> 
> Here's the long chapter! Thanks everyone for waiting! <3
> 
> Once again much love for [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) for betaing this for me 
> 
> My Tumblr: rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	6. Waiting Wolf and Dreaming Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night before the first mission!

After a month of discrete monitoring – that both Hanzo and Yui were was absolutely aware of and just decided to say nothing – as well as seeing no suspicious activities from Hanzo, Winston deemed it was time to have the archer join them on an official mission.

It was a simple scouting mission, just to confirm if Vishkar was dealing with Talons. It’s not exactly a surprise, the rumours are all there. According to Lucio, they would do anything to grow their empire and probably were not above hiring a mercenary group to take out tough competitions.

It was also through Lucio’s network of informants that they discovered a meeting planned near the Lijing Tower gardens between the two groups. So their only plan was to get close enough for some footage for the media or some information of their future plans, and if they are lucky enough they could plant some bugs and give them better access to their internal messages. It would be a team of four getting in close and two more support back-ups just in case things go wrong.

Frankly Yui thought it was about damn time. Hanzo has literally done nothing that should warrant this kind of suspicion. Other than his avoidance with other people but he has always spent his free time either in his room or the shooting gallery. They can’t really be wary of him because of that!

There was also the possibility that it was because of her. She did demand several talks by the cliff. Hanzo took that as a chance to chastise her about her childish behaviour. Yui endured it just so she can nag to him about his avoidant nature as well. It usually ended up taking most of the afternoon and well into the night, to the point that Yui already began to bring some food there just so they could have something to eat while chatting. Some may or may not be stolen from the kitchen when backs were turned.

Of course there was no way for them to pin the crime on her, she knew how to disappear. It’s getting easier now that she knows where all the cameras were pointing at; she just has to keep out of the line of sight and stick in the shadows. Took her several lifetimes to work out her abilities so she definitely was not going to waste what she learnt. This included using it so she could sneak on to the mission herself, despite being explicitly told not to.

She was super curious on how the mission will go, so therefore she will come with. She just won’t tell anyone about it until the plane is in the air. Not even Hanzo, who has actually wrote in the book, with a lot of neat sharp underlines, “do not follow. You will raise suspicions.” She ignored that just like she ignored his protest being jumped on in wolf form.

If spending the last five years with him has taught her anything, it was that Hanzo liked playing tough at the cost of his own mental health. Plus that he has the worst coping mechanisms. Alcohol and taking on dangerous marks, sometime doing both at the same time. She seriously wonders if he realise it himself and just don’t want to change it, or is he actually completely oblivious on the ironically idiotic things he does. So of course she was worried, she wanted to at least observe to make sure he will not do anything too stupid in order to prove himself.

Yui waited till Hanzo fell asleep, and a little longer just in case her shifting off the bed woke him. Then quietly she slipped off the bed and out of the room. She crossed the empty hallway, her form melted to the very shadows. It was near impossible to see her unless you were looking for her specifically. Even then one has to squint at her for a very long time.

Before she slipped completely out of building, she looked back into the dark hallway. Thinking again, was this worth it to leave him early in the night? It was comforting when she noted his nightmares has lessened. Not completely gone, but become milder and less frequent. Yui wondered if it was the time spent with Genji that helped him. However some time they end up yelling at each other and storming off, and that night he would definitely have panic attacks. It might be fine, it might not...

In the end her curiosity won over her worry. It’s not like it’s the first time she left him at a place in the middle of the night.

 

* * *

 

Hanzo woke an hour before his alarm.

He rubbed his eyes when looking at the phone. Usually it wasn’t hard to really work out why, sometimes he couldn’t sleep the night before something important. Like his university entrance exam, like the Dragon ceremony. Sometimes it would just be nightmares, where he would be back at the dojo again. His hands covered in blood like the tatami floor underneath him - underneath Genji. Thankfully this time it was more of the former.

Sighing lightly, he sat up, wondering if it would be possible to sneak into the kitchen for some water. Or to the rec room and beat a game’s high score anonymously. It was then he noticed the mass of black fur that was missing on his bed.

It certainly was not unusual for Yui to disappear on him, sometimes there was a reason such as hunting their next meal and sometimes there was no reason other than her wanting to get out of the room. However, he does miss her presence. Never really admitted it out loud to her, but she seemed to know and understand. She never disappeared on him on the night he gets a nightmare, often awake waiting for him to wake as well and with a bottle of water nearby. Never complained while sitting with him throughout the night and rubbed his back as he dry heaves over the toilet bowls. Sometime she would ask, but she never pushed. He couldn’t tell her how grateful he was with her presences.

He did wonder where she went. She already proclaimed that she mapped out the entire base with the exception of that secret tunnel in the woods that both of them were pretty sure leads to the mainland. If she was getting a snack from the kitchen she usually brought it back to his room to share.

Hanzo chuckled to himself. This is ridiculous... He is not some child that wonders where their parents are at all times.

In the end he found himself at the small desk, opening the journal to write his next message to Yui. So far they got through half of the book. It looks like a cryptid mess as he wrote along the lines in neat fonts, while Yui would often scrawl next to his words in tiny barely legible words. Also filling the margins with everything else, arrows and doodles goes everywhere as her attempt to give him some form of direction on what she was talking about.

That’s when he noticed the small line of scribbles underneath what he wrote last time. Seeing it make him pinch the bridge of his nose.

Try and stop me

Honestly he did expect her to do this. She always worried about him unnecessarily, almost like the time he told her he was returning to Hanamura to pay respect to his brother. Yui was against it as he was still getting used to the new prosthetics and literally argued with him the whole day to try and convince him to wait or let her come. At that time he thought locking her in the safe room and sneaking out would work just fine. Turned out it was completely useless, she probably changed into some smaller creatures and sneak out through the ventilation or something. He spotted her waiting for him on a tree branch on the way out.

This was going to be a repeat of that again. Hanzo contemplated going out to actually search for her and get her to stay at the base. However he has no clue where she would hide right now or even what form she took on. All of this will probably take rest of the night and a lot of his energy - things that will be needed for the long flight and his first mission.

Suddenly the bed felt more inviting than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Psychedelic_dreams_01 for Betaing this one!
> 
> Also just picture Lucio’s informants all look like pre-teen and have so much hair in front of their face that it obscure their vision (and most of their faces) and just enthusiastically hug that boy, while just slyly sleep the info into his pocket. I dunno why I have that image but I am sharing that.
> 
> My tumblr: rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	7. The Wolf on the Plane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanzo was not subtle, then again Yui wasn’t either...

In the end, Hanzo did manage to get back to sleep with minimal tossing and turning, even if he doesn’t feel too well rested. His thoughts have been wandering around for most of his waking hours. He hoped Yui just decide to run off into the wilderness for a night rather than trying to sneak onto the mission with him, or at least he hoped she snuck by hiding in his quiver or something a bit less disturbing than appearing in the cabin out of nowhere.

The team – consisting of him, McCree, Genji, Soldier 76, Ana and Winston – were all on time and ready to board the Orca. Hanzo stared at the plane warily. It was not the same one that Oxton piloted to get him to Gibraltar, this one was much larger and seemed like there are several stories within it. Not something he felt would be at all incognito. Then again considering Winston’s size they probably have no other choice in this regard.

So far everything seemed to be alright, which concerned him greatly.

“Nervous Anjia?” Genji asked as he plopped himself down in the empty seat next to him, practically lounging across two seats.

“No.” He replied while folding his arms across his chest.

The visor glow shifted to the top. It’s what he recognised as Genji’s eye-rolling behind that mask. “Hanzo I’m the better liar here.”

As subtly as he could, Hanzo drew in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Still took a bit of time before he mumbled quietly, “I may be a little concerned about Yui.”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine, there are plenty of people that are left at the base taking care of her. Besides didn’t you said that she often run off on her own?”

_“That was not what I am worried about.”_ He said inside his head.

Hanzo mentally debated briefly whether he should inform him about what she was planning to do. They haven’t taken off yet, so there might be a chance to find her and haul her out of the plane. But doing that will definitely take time and since it’s already all set in the auto-pilot system. Should he really inconvenience the whole team just because of his worry?

“I suppose I worry too much.” Hanzo said with a soft sigh. He tried to force his body to relax... Didn’t really work, but it seemed to be at least convincing enough for Genji to also settle down in his seat.

“Some things just never change huh?” he said as he took out his phone and begin to play Fruit Ninja 7.

Nothing more occurred and soon the plane lifts off and started to head straight for China. It would still take time to arrive there, so most of them have brought along stuff to entertain themselves with. Hanzo tried to take this time to meditate quietly, however it was rather difficult with the moving plane and the ambient chatter. Somehow the cowboy was the loudest of them all, he can’t help but keeping hearing that lovely smooth drawl. He spoke too low for any discernible words to be heard but was still loud enough that he can’t focus on anything else. Only thing he knew to concentrate on was keeping a straight face and sitting absolutely still.

As they were cruising above the sea at Mach 8, they heard an odd scratching noise resonating in the cabin. Winston was the first to get worried about it. “Where is that noise coming from.” The gorilla muttered to himself as he looked at the glowing orange screen, checking for any anomaly in the systems.

It sounded like claws scrabbling against metal and Hanzo’s heart just dropped. As other members also got curious and started to look around for the source of sound, he just buried his face in his hands. It won’t be long till she jumped out of her hiding place.

Genji was the first to find her, he yelped loudly as the wolf flopped on top of him, jumping out from one of the large emergency cupboard. Small boxes of first aid kits tumbled down with her as she excitedly barked and pinning the cybrog down on the floor. How did she fit in there without anyone noticing, is a secret only Hanzo knew.

“Yui!” His little brother laughed and tried to push the large wolf off him, she just nuzzled into the metal armour more and happily coat it with a disgusting amount of wolf slobber.

“How did she get in here?” the soldier asked. He tried to sound displeased, but there was a slight bit of fondness in his words. Yui must have sensed it as well, since she get off the cyborg and began circling around the man.

Hanzo sighed, lifting his head up. “I told you to stay back,” he muttered and gave Yui a short look as she come flopped down in the empty space next to him. She looked completely unapologetic and that angers him more.

Winston doesn’t look too pleased either, “Shimada-san I had hoped you would leave your companion back at base.”

“My apologies, but I have mentioned before I can’t get rid of her even if I tried.” He hasn’t really tried, but he had hoped that Yui understood that if someone asked her to stay back she should probably take their opinion into consideration.

Ana just chuckled and patted Winston’s shoulder. “Well we are already four hours into the flight, I doubt that it would be easy to rewrite the flight plan. So let the stowaway be.”

At that Yui barked happily and immediately got up to nuzzled at the old woman’s side. She smiled and ruffled her head, patting her off as well as she rushed back to Hanzo’s side.

He tried to give her a stern glaring, but it was hard to not smile with her toothy grin. For someone who claimed to have spent the last few decades in the wilderness with wolves, away from any sort of human interactions, she knew how to get on people’s good grace. However, as much as he liked her company the mission is still a priority. “Promise you stay back on the aircraft...”

Yui answered back with a long lick across his face. She purposefully went all the way up to his hair to make it stick up a little. He could hear Genji giggling at the side. Followed by a thud, which he presumed his brother has fallen off his seat.

Even McCree saunters over to have a look. “Makes one wonder how you even managed that criminal empire, when you can’t even manage your pet.” He said that so casually, that most other teammates doesn’t seemed to notice the venomous tone in those words. Hanzo could felt his chest tighten but he refused to let that pain show. Yui on the other hand was perfectly fine in side-eyeing the cowboy and growling with all of her fangs bared.

“Well McCree, we finally find someone who doesn’t find you charming at all.” Ana chuckled, patting McCree’s head.

“Oh come on Yui be nice to him.” Genji reached out trying to grab Yui’s head so she would look at McCree properly.

Before Genji could even touch her to make her turn to McCree, she growled at him as well, making him pull his hands back quick. For a moment she doesn’t seem like the sweet overly friendly wolf that rolled on the grass on base, but something feral. Her golden eyes seemed to burn and flicker like fire.

Hanzo lightly slapped the back of Yui’s head and she yelped comically loud. “No.” He said flatly and was not deterred by her watery eyes, easily glaring back at her. 

She huffed before going off of them and crawled underneath his chair. The others all went back to what they were doing before. Only Genji sat cross legged on the floor and gently reached for the wolf. This time she did not growl and let him scratch the back of her ears. In fact she slowly crawled out from the small space and laid her head on Genji’s lap, rumbling in contentment.

“It’s kinda odd you know.” He said quietly while carding his fingers through her thick fur. “Jesse was usually so good with animals.”

Hanzo was planning to get back to meditation and ignoring everything around him. However after hearing that, Hanzo completely forgot what he was planning to do before. “Really?” he said and joined his brother on the floor. His back against Yui and he could feel her tail thump beside him in slow rhythmic beats.

“Yeah I mean back in Blackwatch, he annoyed Reyes a lot for lagging behind on a return trip because he found some stray dogs or cats to play with.” It was hard to forget that annoyed face the Blackwatch commander had, that immediately melted away seconds later when Jesse held up whatever small critter that got them stalled. It was also a reason the old Swiss headquarter had an animal sanctuary with adoption agency.

“I think Yui just dislikes him.” Hanzo said with a sigh, patting Yui’s side. He did have hope that she will let this go, just like all the petty grudges she holds. Although she did tell him that she was still not over a character’s death from a ninja comic book, and also the death of several other fictional characters from books that are more than a century old... Now he wondered if she was lying when she said her grudges are generally short, or just her concept of time was absolutely skewed.

“By a lot.” Genji pinched her ears, making her yelp in annoyance. “I know you have been stealing and hiding his stuff. You are very naughty Yui.”

She huffed, staring back defiant. They can’t pin the crime on her. How could they prove it was her that buried his case of cigars in Torbjorn’s veggie patch? They have no proof! Other than Athena’s camera, in which case she was so very proud to be the one that managed to steal his secret case of cigars and buried it in the compost heap.

Hanzo grimaced, he probably need another talk with Yui about her pranks. “Hopefully she didn’t steal anything important.”

“Well she hasn’t managed to get his belt buckle or hat yet. So those might be her next target.”

_“Damn straight...”_ Yui thought to herself, and tries her best in masking her smirk.

“Does he always wear that?” Hanzo asked.

“All the cowboy getup? Yup. The hat is practically always on his head.”

“Even back then?”

“Nah, he had a different belt buckle and hat during Blackwatch. Also Reyes usually told him to leave his serape behind so he wouldn’t stand out so much. Still had those spurs though.” Genji also suspects it was just Reyes wanting to colour coordinate his team and only allows a little bit of neon red highlights at odd places.

Hanzo glanced at McCree for a minute, looking over his clothes. “I do not think that can be a good idea.” Not for a black ops division where stealth was paramount.

“No it was kind of necessary? I mean I was twitchy back then and he was so good at sneaking I almost cut his arm off when he appeared behind me with no sound.”

It was difficult for Hanzo to imagine his little brother getting spooked, considering Genji was the one doing all the spooking back at home. Much to the chagrin to all their bodyguards who had to be hyper alert at all times or risk losing their jobs.

Suddenly Genji started a giggling fit. “If I had to guess... The spurs are practically cat bells around the base.”

Hanzo can’t hold back the snort like he did with the laugh. Yui cracked her eye open slightly, she could just barely see Ana also smiling at the scene and McCree looking confused on the table across the cabin. Looks like he can’t quite hear them that far away with engine just roaring outside the window.

“Where is he from?” he continued on his questions, and now she can’t help but listen in as well.

“America. Though I can’t remember exactly where.”

“He has a very peculiar accent.”

“Yeah it took me awhile to get used to it too. Sometimes it gets so thick no one can understand what he is mumbling about until we inject some caffeine into him.”

“I saw him one morning drinking coffee straight out of the pot. I do not believe that was very healthy.”

“Yeah, Ana always end up brewing two-” Genji paused, he cocked his head to the side. “Why are you asking so much stuff about Jesse?”

“Nothing. Merely curious.” Even Hanzo knows he spoke that a little too fast, evident in the way Genji’s green visor light dimmed into one bright thin line. “He mentioned you two were rather close friends and I am just a little curious.” He knew he didn’t sound all that convincing. Even though it was the truth, he was just _curious_.

Yui narrowed her eyes at him as well, before going back to nuzzling and getting comfortable on both of their laps, disregarding how her size meant she shouldn’t be there. Ana chuckling on the side watching the brother’s trying to push the wolf off of them, with very little success.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yui: I have taken your opinion into this situation. And given that I am a wolf I have elected to ignore it. :3c
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks to Psychedelic_dreams_01 again for betaing this one.
> 
> Next chapter may be a little late because I am going to search for a beta again (asking for help is never my strong suite) or a little wonky because there is no beta to look over it. We'll see about it next week > n<


	8. Crows are Cheeky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Standing still for too long will cause birds to nest on you

The mission started off slow and uninteresting and it remained that way for the entirety of the afternoon. The Lijiang Garden was rather quiet even though the sun was still up, with only a small amount of people loitering around and chatting in the warm sun. As the day went on the number dwindled significantly, now in the middle of the night the garden was mostly deserted, only a few people crossing over the garden to hurry to their homes.

Hanzo stood perfectly still on the lower roof levels of the Pagoda, his hand resting on his bowstring with an arrow already nocked. His eyes scanning the gardens below, he could see Genji’s hiding spot on a patio roof nearby, looking very bored and probably close to falling asleep on the spot. He couldn’t spot the old soldier, but he can assume he was at another vantage point, and very much alert since he has been pinging them through the comm every hour for a report. He couldn’t see McCree either, and it felt like a mystery on where the man was stationed. Especially considering that he seemed to be able to see all of them.

Ana and Winston remained on the Orca, keeping an eye on the security camera footage around the gardens, and only planned to enter the scene if something went horribly wrong. At this point, the worst to probably happen was they’d have to watch some drunk teenagers frolicking through the area.

Yui was also meant to stay back with the two. Winston had to physically hold onto the wolf to prevent her from leaving the airship with Hanzo. He doesn’t need to look back, knowing that in a few moments she was going to give them the slip and meet up with him.

In fact just five minutes passed sun down his comm pinged. “Yui disappeared,” Ana said, she sounded a little exasperated. Hanzo couldn’t really blame her. She must have spent a good amount of time trying to keep the wolf next to her and an eye on the security footage around the area.

Hanzo looked around the area to see if he could spot any creature that was predominately black coloured but had gold eyes. He soon spotted a crow on a nearby tree. Straining his eyes a little bit, he can see the gold glint against the black feathers. The bird flew off, circled above his head for a bit before landing on top of it. It was definitely Yui.

“Not with ya?” McCree asked.

“I do not see her.” Hanzo said while glaring up at the crow, easily noting the cheekiness in those golden eyes. “I am sure she is loitering around the airship.” He said, not shifting at all in his stance which was getting a bit difficult with the way she hopped on his head and pecked softly at his forehead. Looking down he could see Genji was struggling to not give his position away from laughing. He’d definitely seen the bird bouncing around him.

And there she stayed for the rest of the mission – at least as much as she could without making the others wonder why there was a bird playing around Hanzo.

Yui didn’t fly anywhere far for the rest of the mission, completely content to rest on his shoulder and occasionally listen in to the comm reports. Sometimes she flew off to rest on a nearby tree, but Hanzo could still see the bright golden eyes glinting in the darkness. He wondered why she left the airship in the first place. It should be much easier to listen to the conversation with them there rather than just with him. At least she stayed silent for the whole time, making sure to not do anything that would require Hanzo to move out of his stance.

They stake out the location for another few hours. It was a very quiet night, even the loud traffic seemed muted in this high rise garden. The only noise was the chirping of crickets and distant hooting of owls. When the sky darkened more, as if it was about to rain, the soldier pinged them again. “Alright, withdraw. They probably changed their location or cancelled altogether. Regroup at the aircraft.”

After an unison of various affirmatives sounding through the comms, Yui finally said something. “Okay I think you broke your record on how long you can stand still.”

The cheerful tone from her just made him more tired. He quickly double checked to see he was muted on the comms before he replied to her. “Why are you here?”

“Worried about you. Duh.”

“You can do that on the airship with Ana and Winston... She was worried about you.”

“I will apologise to her later. And seriously you want me to stay there with a gorilla that was super nervous about me barking aggressively when that asshole came on the mic? No thanks I have collected enough mental problems thank you very much.” She hopped off his shoulder and flew back on top of his head, purposefully messing up his hair to nestle in it.

“Can you stop being petty for one minute?” Hanzo stopped in his track and reached up, easily grabbing her by the leg to pull her off his head. He held on to her leg carefully as he tried to fix up his hair with his other hand. Pulling his hair tie off and combing through it to make sure Yui hasn’t left any surprises on top of his head.

She did struggle in his grip, flapping and twisting all the while being held upside down. In the end she just shrugged and cheated, her feet melt away to shadowy wisps. Yui fell a small distance before righting herself up and flapped about around him. “I will if you can answer why you are taking your sweet time getting back to the airship.” She said as she flew around him.

In any case she wasn’t wrong. Usually he would be walking and fixing all his equipments, never stopping until he was sure he was in a safe area. Yet here he was just standing on an easy-to-see balcony fixing his pony tail. Even if she was the one that messed it up in the first place. Look like it was back to the guessing game...

“Are you having second thoughts?” She asked. Hanzo turned his face away and held in his sigh. However Yui has never been deterred by his silence and probably never will. She flew in front of his face. “Or are you just thinking you are not doing enough to redeem yourself here and no one really wants you here except for your brother?”

He hated that she can guess his thoughts. Despite claiming that mind-reading was just not part of her ability kit, she still has an uncanny ability to know what other people are thinking about. Occasionally he wondered if it was just him. He sighed in defeat, “what would it matter...”

Yui landed gently on his shoulder, beak preening the greying strand next to his ears. “You know you could just leave. These people don’t have the resources or the energy to chase you down.”

Hanzo shook his head. “I cannot do that. I am obligated to be here”

She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re not.”

“You asked me to be here. _Genji_ asked me to be here.”

“Yeah but I am asking about _you_. What do you want to do?”

At that he went silent again. Yui sighed, pecking at his ear a little. “Hanzo. I’m not your father. I’m not going to force my decision on you. Nor am I going to hurt you for choosing something I don’t like. You _know_ this.”

“Then why are yo-”

“I’m reminding you.” She flew up from his shoulder and hovered in front of him. “So tell me plain and simple. Do you want to stay?”

Hanzo look down from the balcony. Ahead of him, he could see Genji chatting animatedly to McCree. Their laughter reached up to him and they really seemed to be having fun. He thought for years he would never hear his little brother laugh like that again. Even when Genji appear to him that night, he couldn’t believe that the cybrog in front of him was really him.

In a sense he wasn’t. The Genji that was here now was a lot more serious, more mature and understanding. Back when they were children, he used to be the one that would always push the blame on others, never taking any of the responsibility for his own actions. He probably never noticed what others around him were thinking – or even that they existed. And now he was the one that seek him out when they had a fight, apologising sincerely each time.

He wanted to know what happened to him, what caused such a dramatic change. There might be little hope for him, since he was far too old and his hands already far too bloody, but he still wanted to see for himself the good Genji always talked about. Things that made him able to laugh and joke with McCree as if he was in his teen again. Or maybe he just wanted to hear more of their laughter he wasn’t quite sure himself.

Regardless he knew what he wanted to do.

“Yes. Just a little longer... Let us stay.” He murmured quietly, before turning to the side and going down the fire escape stairs.

Yui flew around, tweeting lightly. “I’ll accept your decision.” When she saw Hanzo’s stare, she grumbled a little. She knew what he wants and in a way she doesn’t want to agree, she wanted to be as angry and annoying as possible. At the same time it wouldn’t do to act so childishly while Hanzo was trying to be better. “Yes, yes... I will be less petty for a week.”

“A month.”

She resisted the urge to squawk directly at his face for that. There was no way she could hold her anger back that long. Especially towards someone that grind on her nerves like McCree. “Two weeks.”

“Four.”

“Fine... Hey wait a minute!” It took a little too long for her to realise what he has done, but seeing that smile on his face made it just a little bit worth it. So she would let it go... this time.

She flew back ahead, changing back to a wolf in the alley before stepping out into the bright light of the airship.

“Yui!” Ana called out, she sounded so relieved at the sight of her.

Now she actually did feel kind of bad for making the old sniper worry. She quickly bound up to her and slobbered all over her face as peace offering. Just to give her more piece of mind, she rested near her as the rest of the team slowly file back into the cabin, ready for their long flight back to base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much thanks to TheL3mon offering to beta for this one.  
> You saved me :"D
> 
> My tumblr: rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	9. Dragon in a Small Village

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dragon met a bunny in a very small village

“Guuuuuuuys! Has anyone seen my DS?” Hana shouted out during breakfast.

The sudden noise almost made everyone jump. It was a quiet day today as most members had left for London on a mission. They wouldn’t be coming back for another few days. So the only ones present were Ana, Jack and Hanzo – as well as Yui underneath the table. Everyone was wearing casual clothes as it was really just a Saturday.

The old soldier looked up from his data pad warily. “Your what?”

“Geez 76, I thought that thing was from your time?” She smirked, before proceeding to open every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen. Even going as far as opening the fridge and rummaging through it. “My game console! It’s an antique and I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Don’t know.” 76 looked back down on his data pad, scrolling to the next page. “Who has been in your room?”

“Plenty of people, but I already asked them. And I doubt any of them are old enough to know what a DS is anyway.”

Hanzo looked down towards Yui. She smiled at him with a toothy grin. A few days ago he had found a DS on his bed, and his small case of games that he’d managed to hide away was lying next to it. Yui was looking as smug as she did then. He did wonder how she found another DS for him, should have really expected her to ‘borrow’ from another person.

“Search your room again, maybe it has been buried underneath your other collections,” said Ana, while gently closing all the drawers Hana neglected to close in her search.

“But I already combed through everything!” She whined before leaving the kitchen again. Presumably going back to her room for a second try at looking for the console.

Hanzo quickly finished his food and left the room, Yui following closely behind him.

He made a bee-line back to his room, he needed to talk to Yui fast. Thankfully after that first mission, he noted that the audio bugs have been removed from his room. He still double checked to see if there were any more well-hidden ones around. At this point everything seemed clear and he promptly pinched the wolf’s ears.

“Yui I thought you promised that you wouldn’t steal from other people.” He said while digging out DS from his bag. Hopefully Hana wouldn’t notice how much it was used based on the battery bar. Perhaps he could charge it to full before returning it. 

“I promised I won’t be petty that’s all.” Still one more week of that promise to go through, she started to regret not arguing further on that night. However right now, it was unimportant. “Say... Isn’t there a special event going on that let you have the Japanese carp streamer decoration for your town?”

Silence fell upon the room. Yui watched in amusement as Hanzo silently debated in his head on his options. Face transitioning from disapproving scowl, bright spark of interest in his eyes and just a hint of homesickness. Not to mention his thinking face. He might not have realised it but his thinking face looked so angry, it was actually funny. After a few more moments, his shoulder sagged and she knew she had won.

“Just five minutes, and then you are going to return her DS okay?” He mumbled. Quickly Yui jumped on the bed, nudging behind Hanzo as he opened the game. She rumbled happily hearing the soft game music. Slow farming games were always her favourite as it always had the best loop music.

However only a few minutes into the game, Hanzo began to grumble. He got off from the bed and began to pace around the room. Occasionally he held the DS in awkward high positions and waving it about. It was just simply unfortunate that old technologies just didn’t integrate well into the present. Yui sighed and stretched out on the bed.

“You know the rec room always has the best wifi.” She commented, jumping off the bed to wait at the door. “Come on I’m sure those two probably will not visit there anytime soon. Not with another status report coming up in a few hours.”

She had sat through one of those reports and 76 knew how to make it so dry that she had trouble not falling asleep. Not to mention the whole update would go so long, that if Ana got bored and got up to bake a cake, by the time she got back he would still be on the same bullet point.

Hanzo paused and thought about it. “And Hana?” That would be the one person he really didn’t want to end up seeing, considering that he had her DS and he was playing games that he wasn’t allowed to. Wasn’t allowed to before, he reminded himself silently before Yui does that for him.

“Probably still looking around for her DS.” Yui pranced around him. “Come on the event is gonna start soon. You might not get a chance to play once I give this back.”

Hanzo bite his lips. “Alright... Alright...” He quickly opened the door and pushed Yui out first. No doubt wanting her to scout ahead to make sure the way to the rec room was absolutely clear.

She really wanted to just tell him to chill at this point, but they were out in the open and she really shouldn’t speak. So she just rolled her eyes before trotting ahead, barking lightly to signal him. Judging by the scent, the two old soldiers had already went away to the conference room. Hana’s scent was everywhere though, must have been residue from her turning the whole base upside down to look for her console. At least she can hear her in her room now, muttering a long string of Korean. By the sounds of it she probably won’t be out of the room for a few more hours.

“ _It would be funny if she still ended up coming in here later,_ ” Yui thought to herself. It probably will give Hanzo a small heart attack, but she could see the girl absolutely ignoring what Torbjorn had said and focus completely on the fact that he also played games.

She knew Hana really wanted someone to play a game with. It was something she always said during streams – in which she had the pleasure to watch while lounging in her soft toy piles – commenting how it was a little lonely been surrounded by so many people but none of them really liked video games. Sure she hung out with Lucio a lot, but he only liked playing rhythm games and nothing else. Then the rest of the Overwatch group are people who either can’t figure out the controls or just have zero interest in it.

It would be nice for both of them to realise they could play video games together. She just can’t think of a good way to do it without accidently freaking Hanzo out. Honestly sometimes she felt he was more like a wild startled animal than anything else. He was always on guard, and always wary of any form of kindness sent his way.

Just like now he stared at her in suspicion when she held a spare cushion in her mouth. Yui resisted the urge to roll her eyes and throw the pillow at his face, instead she set it down in his usual corner just underneath the window and behind the big couch. A spot he chose because he had a clear escape path and it was a blind spot from the doorway. She understood why he was like this; she just wished he wouldn’t keep it up in an obvious safe space.

Hanzo sat down on the cushion, ruffling Yui’s fur before letting her rest her large frame across his legs. He opened the game back up again, lowering all the audio much to the wolf’s displeasure. He knew he was in a safe space, but it was hard to get rid of old habits and it was always better to be safe than sorry.

Once he entered the game he was relieved that he got in there just in time to receive the special prize. The little characters were all cheering and partying in the little neat town. It was hard to resist playing for just a little longer. He needed to check that the town was running well after all. There were the villagers in the little town, they all seemed to be pretty happy and had no intention of moving. His flower gardens were all in full bloom, not a weed in sight and all the trees were laden with fruits.

Yui rumbled softly, glad to see him finally relax, she closed her eyes and prepare to take a nap.

Suddenly the door slammed open. Yui looked up to see Hana stood there.

“I hear game music.” She mumbled to herself.

Yui had to take a moment to feel absolutely proud that this girl could hear near-muted game music behind a sofa and a closed door. Then she immediately got up with a wagging tail. It was unplanned, but if living in the wild had taught her anything, it was to take any advantages that come up.

Hana clamoured over the couch, following the music. She first got a face full of wolf slobber as Yui met her halfway and eagerly showered her with affection. It took a few moments for her to push the wolf aside and see the most surprising sight to her.

Her eyes went wide as she stared at the screen. “Oh my god... Are you playing Animal Crossing?”

Hanzo desperately wanted to run, but as Yui jumped up to greet Hana, she conveniently positioned herself to block his escape path. It was then followed by her sinking all of her body weight back onto his legs. He was effectively trapped underneath, there wasn’t even any wiggle room. He glared at the wolf, but Yui didn’t even look at him.

He wanted to say something, to explain himself or find some excuse. However before any of that happened Hana jumped over the sofa completely and practically sat on top of Yui.

“Let me see your village! Please please _please!_ ”

Hanzo had to take a moment to collect himself. The last time someone was this excited around him was when he was in primary school and it was Genji screaming and running around him in excitement.

Now Hana was the one overly excited, looking like she was just barely holding back her screeches and bouncing up and down, absolutely disregarding the poor wolf underneath her.

Yui closed her eyes and tried to endure this. Hana may be the youngest and the lightest of all Overwatch member, but having an eighteen year old bouncing on top of your back still hurt. She looked towards Hanzo, who seemed a little overwhelmed and subsequently frozen. The wolf rolled her eyes once more and then her body, dumping the girl right on his lap. It seemed to snap him out of whatever trail of thought he had, and also calmed Hana down a little.

“C’mon Hanzo let me see it please?” she asked, but did not crowd in or give him the doe eye she sometimes gave to her viewers. She just looked genuinely excited to see his little animal town.

Tentatively Hanzo nodded and handed over the DS. Hana took it and immediately shifted her position so she was sitting on the cushion next to Hanzo. The corner area was getting a bit crowded, so Yui subtly shrank down her size, she highly doubted the girl would notice the wolf was smaller than usual by the way she was so absorbed in Hanzo’s little village.

“Holy crap this is the most organised village I’ve ever seen!”

Hanzo was silent for a long while before he said, “thank you.” He was rather proud of what he has managed to create in the game.

She punched his arm. “Hanzo you should’ve told me about this earlier! Now I’ve got someone to play with!”

“You would... want to?” He thought by now everyone would have known the relationship between him and Genji, as well as the reason for his cybernation. Just that knowledge should send people away from him. He was also not the most fun person to have around and...

His trail of thought was promptly cut off by another punch to his arm. “Of course! I can lend you the DS so Yui won’t have to steal it from me.”

“ _Ah! so she did notice that it was her DS._ ” Yui thought to herself. Although she has to wonder how she knew it was her. She entered her room as a black cat, looking similar to one of the game mascot cats to blend in with her toys. Unless she saw her trotting back to Hanzo’s room with the DS in her mouth, in which case it couldn’t be helped and she just had to be way more careful next time. 

“My apologies. My own one broke a while back and she has been seeking one out for me for a while now. I didn’t expect her to go this far.” Hanzo pinched the wolf’s ear. Not hard enough to really hurt, but enough to make her yelp and whimper apologetically.

“Why does she do it though?” Hana asked, reaching forward to scratch Yui behind her ear.

“She enjoys the in-game music, I suppose.” She also played a lot of those games herself, although preferring turn-based role-playing game rather than farming game or management games like himself.

Yui let out a pleased rumble as Hanzo carefully turned the music up. She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to the two.

“Awww! How sweet!” Hana cooed and pushed her face in the dark fur, mumbling a string of jibberish nonsense to the wolf. Hanzo could see Yui struggling not to laugh at the cute scene.

After a while Hana lift her face out and shifted so she could flop her whole body down on the wolf. She turned towards him, “You know if you still have that busted up DS I could probably fix it or get you a new one.”

Hanzo shook his head. “No. It’s alright. I do not want to be an inconvenience.”

And he doubted anyone could fix a DS that was shot through several times. It was a pity as well, he finally managed to find a working DS that had Mega-Raquaza printed on the front.

“Oh Hanzo you have no idea how easy it is for me to get these things.” She supposed it was one of the perks of having a large fan-base. They still would send her gifts even when she couldn’t stream games as often anymore, and her inbox were always filled with encouragement and kindness.

”Okay also you have to tell me what other games you play. This can’t be the only one!” She refused to believe that. Especially since she saw the hours from the game file, if this was his only game she expect a larger play time in there.

“I was not allowed to play games you know.” Unlike someone else...

The few times he managed to play some games when he was young were done in absolute secrecy, where he managed to sneak to Genji’s room and play his console game. He felt his back sting again, remembering the time he was caught. He didn’t tell his father why he was wandering around the hall at night, knowing he would receive something much worse than lashes on his back if he said his reasons.

“ _Was!_ Meaning not now.” Hana laughed, drawing him out of his memory. She tugged at his clothes again, with all the excitement of a child on sugar. “So tell me tell me tell me!”

Hesitantly he took out the pouch and opened it for Hana to see. She looked at each and every title, yelling in excitement when she found a game that she also had and enjoyed. Yui’s own game cartridges were nowhere to be found, Hanzo assumed that Yui swallowed it like she swallowed the phone, or hopefully she’d be a sensible person and put it in a bag like he does and put it elsewhere.

Soon Hanzo took out his game, and let Hana load up hers. She showed off her village, it has lots more bunny and frog like characters in her village, and it seemed to be predominately pink themed. Cracking her eyes open slightly, Yui was pleased to see the look on their faces. Just the simple giddy excitement of a beautiful farm and finally finding someone with shared interest.

She let out a soft rumble and prepared herself for a soothing nap listening to the calming music of animal town and also any sort of footsteps. Hanzo would probably appreciate a good head-start to run away from any others. Hana already give him the biggest heart attack today, he doesn’t need another one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If given the chance Hanzo will definitely be a gamer. All his competitive energy has to go _SOMEWHERE_.
> 
> Much love and thanks to TheL3mon for betaing this!
> 
> My tumblr: rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	10. Wolf and Sparrow Sitting on the Roof

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> t-a-l-k-i-n-g!
> 
> ...
> 
> They need to have a talk about some things...

After a few months of having his brother back, Genji noticed several differences.

Very significant differences, from what he remembered from childhood. Granted they have not spoken for almost a decade, and the first thing they did when they met was get into a fight at the family dojo, it was still something that was odd for him to notice.

For a start, Hanzo was much calmer and patient than he remembered. Considering how often he blew up on him for the littlest things when they were little, it surprised him to see him listening quietly to Hana who was talking a mile a minute on some game she was playing recently. It’s also possible he wasn’t listening, but that thought was dispelled when he gave back thoughtful comments that made Hana smile and laugh.

It also surprised him to find Hanzo playing video games with Hana one late night. Late as in technically-it’s-the-next-day kind of late. They were in the game room on the soft carpet. She was lying across his stomach and Yui was curled up behind his head. Both of them absorbed with an old Nintendo hand-held. He didn’t even know Hanzo liked video games. Apparently he was also scarily good at it with the way Hana suddenly sat up and hit him with a nearby pillow, screaming something about meta tactics, while he half-heartedly blocked the flurry of attacks, chuckling.

This wasn’t limited to the Korean girl either, he finds that a few more other Overwatch member seemed to be relaxing around him. Mei once told him that Hanzo had helped her find the tea that was too far up on the shelves. He climbed the cupboard and even offered to brew it for her.

Bastion, who was always shy towards many members, was happy to sit next to Hanzo in the garden as they watched Gaymede and Yui run around on the grass. He occasionally beeps and boops, and Hanzo nodded quietly in acknowledgement. Weeks later he found that Hanzo was slowly teaching the omnic single hand sign language.

Even his master has made a comment that while he was avoidant of him – which was expected of Hanzo – but when they were together he was polite. As long as the topic of their past was not brought up immediately, in which case the archer would up and leave the area immediately without another word.

It felt weird, considering when he was little he was always wary of omnics and would often avoid them as much as possible. Even acting rude and condescending if they came for a meeting with their father. Yet here he was, actually interacting with both omnics on base. 

Just what happened in the last few years? There was only one way for him to find out.

Finding the wolf was always a hassle. Yui seemed to be able to get to places that would be impossible for her size and paws – yet more than one time he spotted her on a tree branch sniffing at a birds nest. So instead of running around the whole base trying to find her, he immediately asked Athena for her last spotted location.

He still has to collect his jaw from the ground as the screen show the wolf on a roof top. There was no direct stairs or ladders around the area, not even an upper floor or a tall tree for her to jump to. She was just laid there on the floor soaking in the warm sun. He stopped questioning and quickly went off to catch her before she moved to a different spot.

It took a few minutes of looking through several open windows, scaling some vertical walls and one check with Athena before Genji managed to get to where the wolf was sunning herself. She was still there rolling off her back and rumbling in contentment.

“Hey Yui?” He called out cautiously. Yui doesn’t seemed to get startled, but after seeing those feral gold eyes that day, he doesn’t want to take any chances with her.

The wolf opened her eyes and turned towards him, he had to brace himself somewhat as Yui immediately lunged at him and gave him a face plate full of wolf slobber. Tail wagging and excited jumping, now he was sure she was in a good mood to do as he asked.

“Ahahahahaha! Okay, okay! Quit it!” He pushed the wolf off, but she was still panting and circling around him – completely hyper. It’s hard not to laugh at that. “I got something I need to speak to your owner about. Fetch the phone will you?”

Yui cocked her head to the side, before started going to a loud hacking cough. A very long cough as well, with bits of wheezing in the middle and lots of wolf drool pool down on the floor.

“Um... Uhhhh...” Genji was starting to panic a little. He has little to no knowledge on animal biology, he can’t tell if this was a normal thing a wolf do or not. Yui has been such a good influence on Hanzo, he can’t imagine what losing her will be like for him. It was probably not a good idea to keep feeding her random food on hand, some of them are definitely not healthy for dogs... or wolves. Not to mention since she was with him last there was going to be a high chance Hanzo blame it on him and kill him.

And that is an experience that he doesn’t want to live through again.

Thankfully the hacking cough stopped, unfortunately she spit out a phone that was covered in so much sticky drools that also splashed on him. There also seemed to be pieces of ham and lettuce stuck to the side of the phone. She must have stolen someone’s lunch – _again_.

“You are lucky I didn’t decide to wear clothes today.” Genji mumbled as he picked up the phone and wiped the drool away. It surprised him a little that the phone was completely unlocked and fully charged. Or the fact that the phone still works despite been inside a _stomach_.

He quickly selected the number, there was only one number anyway and it was that woman’s. She was the one person that Hanzo seemed to be in contact with consistently for the last five years. Or even travelled together at some point! This was based on the small banters he over-heard when he passed by his brother’s room. They were chatting casually about their last trip about Australia and how she should really stop going near the radiation zone to steal stuff. If anyone know what changed with Hanzo it would be her.

After the first time, Genji could only manage to talk to her a few more times. All those times Hanzo and Yui come together with the phone. He tried to sneak into his room and look for the phone, because in all honesty he has always sneaked into his brother’s room to look for something embarrassing. However as he searched through the room, all he found was a notebook that was half written in Chinese and other half written in Japanese. The Japanese part doesn’t look like Hanzo’s handwriting though, far too messy it was barely readable!

So all he could do was to ask Yui to fetch the phone. Results vary from her ignoring him completely to her also alerting Hanzo and end up all three of them chatted. That made it difficult to ask questions, since some questions made his brother tense and the lady immediately switch topic when that come up, not that she doesn’t do that often. It seemed like dark magic the way she could to derail the conversation so fast that it was not until the call was shut off that he realised the things he was going to ask were completely forgotten.

This time there was no other distraction he can definitely get some much needed answers out of her.

He was a little nervous, he doesn’t know if the call will go through. When Winston and Angela were checking through the phone he was there, and he waited with them for hours for the voice to come out on the other end. Even Hanzo has told him that he always put it on speaker mode immediately because he never know if she was on the other end and will even speak.

So as the call went through he put it on speaker mode and wait, laying back on top of Yui, waiting patiently for her voice to ring out. Surprisingly it didn’t take long this time.

“Hello~!”

Immediately Genji sat back up straight. “Yo!”

“Did something happen? Is Hanzo okay?” she asked quickly.

“Yeah he is fine, that-”

“Ok that’s good! Is he on a mission right now? Where did he go last time?”

Genji held in a breathe, she seemed to know what he wanted to ask and already trying to control the direction of the conversation. He better be fast before she can completely change the conversation, but what could he possibly say to subtly change it?

“No absolutely not. You are not derailing this again. I have questions and I need answer this time.” Okay this wasn’t as subtle as he thought in the head but it was close enough. Besides the lady seemed to get the idea, he could hear a sigh.

“I could always just hang up.” She said flatly.

Genji cursed mentally, he really needed to start thinking ahead. For now he just needed to think of a good reason for her not to hang up. He would consider bribing but he has literally no idea who she is and what she would like. Another option was to freely share all of Hanzo’s embarrassing stories, but honestly he doesn’t want to be so mean to him when they are finally on the mend. He sat there in silence, racking his brain for a good long while to think of something good to get her to answer him.

Finally the green light flashes. “Then I would be mean to Yui.”

It was a weak one he knew this, and she also know this. She snorted. “What kind of things could you do to a wolf? You know she can bite through metal like it’s candy bar.”

“I know for a fact she loves head scratches. And I know I can convince Angela she has fleas so no one will touch her for a good week.” May need to do some sabotaging by throwing dirt on the wolf or something, but considering the fact Yui run around in the wilderness for a good long time and that he has never seen her take a bath, it might not be that hard.

He literally doesn’t believe that this would really work. As much as the wolf seemed to be connected to the lady, he doesn’t expect her to care that much and probably would hang up immediately.

The hyena-like cackle and Yui curled up tighter was something he did not expect.

“Ohhhh. You’re evil.” She said between her wheezing for breath.

“A prerequisite to all younger siblings.” He said with a shrug. Genji felt it didn’t really work and she was just humouring him. Still he would take it.

She was still laughing, “alright you convinced me. But I got a condition.”

Genji’s heart sank to his stomach. “What?”

“This conversation we have will not be spread out - _ever_. So you are not going to tell anyone else what I told you.”

He furrowed his brows.“Why?”

“Because Hanzo will leave and you might never see him again.” Yui shifted slightly, her eyes cracking open a slit to look at the cyborg. “I can sort of guess what you want to ask and a lot of it I probably won’t out right say it because it’s _his_ private matter. So if he found out you told others. And believe me he will find out.” She sighed heavily. “He will run away again.”

“ _Fair enough._ ” Genji thought to himself. He can completely see his brother running away at from this. Besides the things he was going to ask won’t be that invasive anyway. “Okay. I promise.”

“Pinky Promise?”

They both laughed aloud, Yui in particular was shaking in her tight ball.

“You are not even here!” Genji shouted, removing his mask to wipe a tear from his eye.

“If you lie Yui will chomp your pinky off.”

“Oh my god why!?”

“You don’t know the origin of the rhyme? In ancient times it was customary to cut off the pinky as a swear of loyalty or a sign of dishonesty. It was believed that the pinky finger has a vein connected right to the heart. It’s also where they myth of red-string of fate originate-”

Genji rolled his eyes. “You are derailing this again.”

“Can’t get passed you huh?” she chuckled. “Alrighty! What do you want to ask?”

He let out a breath, there was always one question he always wanted the answer to. “What was Hanzo like? You know when you first met him...”

“A bit of a mess...” She sounded hesitant to say more. Guess he needed to be more specific.

“I kind of want to know something more specific than that. Like you know was he just broody all the time? Or literally just doing nothing but boring stuff...”

Honestly he has no idea what Hanzo would be like fresh after murdering him. Back then he thought his brother would be happy he was dead, after all he always said he was a nuisance around the house or a disgrace to the family. Then during his time at Blackwatch, while happily killing off the elders that sentenced him and tearing down everything. He heard that Hanzo ran from the family and has not been heard for a long while, he wondered what he was thinking. Wasn’t the empire all he ever wanted?

Then after seeing Hanzo again at the family shrine in Hanamura, again and again every year at the same time, he couldn’t really believe that anymore.

“Are you asking because the Hanzo you see is different from the one you remember?” she asked.

Genji cringed, “Well... Yeah... I mean I never saw him play video games before.” Or that he would be in any way interested. He always seemed to prioritize studying to be the heir over everything else.

“He told me he used to play your games at night time.”

Suddenly he remembered all those weird high scores on his games. He always thought it was the AI getting harder to deny him the first place on the leaderboards. Every time he beat the high score the next day his score was beat again! This continued on and on until he moved on the next game. Then every once in awhile he would visit one of the old abandoned games to see his high score get completely pushed out of the leader board. So it was Hanzo that was doing this...

The lady huffed. “Made sense to me since he also told me how much your father wanted him to study and train in the day time.”

“Okay I’m sure he was not that scary.” He can’t imagine his father being that strict, since he was allowed to play around the whole house all day and run around in the arcade. Never really said anything to his horrible grades or all the drinking and drugs he was doing for fun. Other than occasional exasperated nagging at the dinner table, and that was when he was there, which was not often. He was sure his father-

“I saw scars on Hanzo’s back while I was treating his injuries.” She said flatly.

Genji paused. The change in her tone was sudden and weird, why would she get mad about his scars? “Well yeah he get plenty from his train-”

“What kind of training would give you criss-crossing diagonal scars? That are evenly spaced?” She growled. He could see Yui’s fur seemed to stand on its end. “And what about that fucking brand on his shoulder?”

“Brand?”

“The family sigil was on his right shoulder! You never saw it?!”

He did saw it, long ago when he snuck into his brother’s room to ‘borrow’ some shuriken. At that time he was changing and he saw the mark, white against angry red skin. That was right before he was tossed out of the room.

“He said it was a tattoo! He was like so proud of it!”

“No tattoo can be that pale! Not even white ink!” Her voice was starting to rise up in volume and echo in the area. Even Yui got up to start pacing around. “And he told me he got it when he just entered high school. It really pissed me off at that time because who the fuck brands their children!?”

“I-” He doesn’t know what to say. This was the first time he heard of these things. Granted he was a selfish prick back then, caring for no one other than himself and especially not what’s happening with his family matter.

Even as he lost and dying, being brought back to life didn’t change that. Being in Blackwatch didn’t change that. All those time he was just angry and complaining about everything. Also hating Hanzo... That happened a lot. The only thing he did learn was that he wasn’t all that special. Fighting against Lena and Jesse in training made him realise he just really another guy. Or maybe just Reyes was really good at making sure the spoil brat part of him was beaten to the floor.

Being with Zenyatta was what finally made him realise that other people exist, and that they are just as important as he was. He remembered the cold nights where the air made everything in his body ache uncomfortably. How the omnic brought him warm drinks to help, and even sat with him for the rest of the night. Forever patient whenever he has a tantrum, and eventually the calm reached his heart and mind.

It was a change he needed.

“Yeah... I just... Didn’t notice until now.” He said softly, putting his head in his hand.

“Genji you do know that just made you sound like an inconsiderate ass right?” she huffed.

“Yeah. I know... I know... It took me a while to notice how I probably also had a hand in this.”

He has never stopped wondering what could he have done to change the outcome. At first he wondered if he could just kill Hanzo, would make most of the problem go away. Then he began to wonder what actually changed over the years. They were much closer when they were young, he was nicer to him as well and more forgiving. Maybe he was just too oblivious, or kept in the dark of the things around him.

He wondered that if he noticed would he be able to prevent all of the drama...

Suddenly Yui was beside him, nudging his face out of his hand. She spoke again, her voice softer this time. “Well I don’t really blame you or Hanzo. Sometime things just... Can’t be helped...”

“Yeah...” he sighed, carding through the black fur. Even knowing this he would have wished for something better for Hanzo. From what he gathered, Hanzo had been on the run ever since he left the clan. Furthermore the clan was desperate in killing him or bringing him back that they give up a lot of asset defending their base to chase after him. Thanks to that Overwatch had an easier time dismantling their numerous bases.

It’s hard to imagine what Hanzo must have gone through in those couple of years.

“Hey... I want to tell you something.” Genji said softly, hand tightening a little in Yui’s coat.

“Yes?” she tried not to sound strained, but the both of the brothers have some insane grip. Thankfully Genji didn’t seem to notice.

“I just really want to thank you. Without you I don’t know how bad Hanzo would have gotten.” It must have been an awfully lonely road to exile himself and it’s something he wished up no one, especially his brother. “He needed a friend. That much hasn’t changed since he was little. And I’m glad you are there for him and helping him to be a better person.”

“I try. I don’t know how much I actually helped really.” Yui know she was not a professional in any sense and will never pretend to be. Only lucky to be in the same position as him before and know a little of what he needed. “In a sense what he has now probably won’t ever be fixed. A permanent scar that might open without rhyme or reason...”

Those night terrors are a proof, along with the panic attacks. She still gets her own nightmares, however taking care of someone quiets those things down enough. She never doubt that one of these days it will sprang up on her again. Same with Hanzo...

“But I know if you are helping him and with Yui he can get to a place that would be healthier for him. So I wanted to thank you too. For giving him a chance.”

There was a sigh, she somehow sounded... scared.

“Just... Don’t give up on him okay? He is trying.” The only comfort she can take for now. It might take a long while for Hanzo to learn how to be around people, how to be human. At least he was trying.

“Of course! I promise I will help my brother get to a better place.” Genji paused for a minute. He stared at the wolf, who chose to curl up behind him after he let go of her. Yui rumbled as he reached over to scratch at her neck.

“Yui is gonna keep an eye on me for you isn’t she?” Since she followed him all the way to a mission, and probably run off from the airship so she can keep the archer company. If his theory about her mentally linked to the wolf it would make sense for the two to be close together and make it easier for her to help.

“Pretty much.” Yui wished she could cross her fingers now. Hopefully Genji keep with this line of theory and it might be good for her to reinforce it. “She also keeps me updated to things Hanzo thought he hide well. Like one time he thought he can hide the fact he got a cold and later trying to convince me that it was just an allergy. My lord I have to take the sake away from him, because that ain’t helping the fever.”

Genji laughed, rolling back on the floor. He can picture the whole scene perfectly, including his brother’s annoyed scowl. “Do you have to hold him down to make him take the medicine?”

“Having a wolf lying on top of him seemed to work well enough.” The wolf grinned wide.

“Oh my god, you got to tell me more of these stories!”

There was a soft chuckle. “I think these are more fun to learn from the source don’t you think? Although I’m pretty sure he will deny each and every single one.”

“Hey he is stubborn! What can you do?”

“Glad to see some things stay the same.” She said cheerfully. “Alright then I’m off.”

Genji scrambled back up. “No wait! I’m not finished. I don’t even know your name! Why did you help Hanzo that time? And who exactly are you?”

“Go ask your brother.”

“He doesn’t know your name either.” This made him wonder how the hell the two could interact for all those years when Hanzo doesn’t even know what to call her. Did he even call her by name actually? Or actually calling her with a nickname?

_Well shit._ Yui cursed mentally, she hoped he made up a name and she could follow along. She doesn’t want to think up a fake name now. “I will tell you when you beat your brother in Pokken.” Ok this back-up plan was not that better either.

“What the heck is that?” He thought he was pretty knowledgeable in games, can’t beat Hana but should be more than anyone else on base. Admittedly he hadn’t play any games for a long while, so it could be one of the new games, but it don’t even sound like a well-known series.

“Pokemon Tekken.”

The cybrog blinked. “That’s a thing?”

“Ask D.Va. Byeeee!”

“Hang on wait!”

However no more voice came from the other side, and Yui had come up again chomping on the phone. She managed to swallow the whole thing down in one gulp.

“That can’t be healthy for you,” he said as he watched the wolf burped in satisfaction. He mentally noted to write down all the questions next time so he wouldn’t flounder like this.

For now though he need to find Hanzo, and maybe Hana because he need her to find that game in the rec room.

He was the Tekken champion in Hanamura. There was no way Hanzo can beat him in some cheap furry cross over version.

Yui trotted behind the cybrog, grinning from ear to ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title sounded better in my head :U  
> Also incoming backstory chapters!
> 
> Once again thanks to TheL3mon for betaing this! <3
> 
> My tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	11. The Wolf Remembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yui remembers how she had first met the grouchy archer...
> 
>  
> 
> Warning: mild gore in this chapter

Midnight generally meant a time of peace and quiet, a time to reflect upon the day and for people to prepare themselves for the next one.

Not so much for the three people in the rec room, setting up the old Nintendo Switch and obviously way too awake and too excited to go to sleep.

“It surprises me Yui relinquish the phone to you.” Hanzo commented from the sofa, stretching out his fingers. Even in night time clothe everything was simple and neat. Plain t-shirt and sweat pants, his hair was still tied up.

Genji was lounging next to him, in a pachimaru sweater that was obviously too big, same with the dragon printed sweat pants. His face mask was off and on the side table along with all the popcorn and sour candies. “I told you I could bribe her.”

They both were watching Hana crawl around the TV to try and get to the correct plugs. It was a bit inconvenient they had so many gaming systems that they needed to keep switching it out when someone wanted to play. Not to mention a lot of them are so old the cables and ports were hard to match and see. By the time she got back out her hair was in a glorious mess. It was also surprising how her baggy sleep wear didn’t get caught on anything.

Yui laid on the carpet and watched them all in amusement. Genji had already started to brag on about his skill in Tekken, but she could see Hana and Hanzo exchanging glances. This was going to be a massacre and the poor cybrog didn’t even know it yet.

Until ten minutes later.

Genji was still trying to land a hit on Hanzo’s Blaziken, but he was too fast and countering so often. He can’t blame the unfamiliar controls or abilities anymore because they let him practice a bit and he already told them he was cool with it. Not to mention he had no idea how Hanzo could charge his assists so fast!

“What were you saying a few minutes ago Genji?” Hana laughed, shoving some more popcorn in her mouth, watching the fight upside down on the sofa.

“Shut up!” he said while button mashing rapidly, hoping for a miracle.

Hana smirked. “I can give you a leg up,”

“I’ll take it.” Frankly he would take anything to not get completely wiped by his brother again. She might call upon a favour later, but it doesn’t really matter.

Immediately Hana started pushing on Hanzo with her foot, giggling madly and try to push his hands or block his vision to make him lose concentration. He just chuckled and started to play the game one hand, his other trying to push the small feet away from him. He was still holding out against Genji and still won.

Yui rumbled, it was nice to see him like this. Just screwing around in the middle of the night, eating junk food and actually having fun for once.

Way better than how he was when she found him.

*******

The woods were quite noisy tonight.

Yui yawned, her form stretched like a liquid as she stretched out completely. The distant sound of branches breaking and yelling woke her. It was a shame, she was having such a nice dream for a moment there and it would be great to just go straight back to sleep. However she knew she couldn’t. After finishing her stretch, she solidified herself a bit before stepping out of her cabin and into the night.

She may not have resided in the woods long, but even though, she knew those sounds were not something natural.

Sure the woods may be full of Yokais and restless spirits and pretty much everything unnatural, but she knew almost all of them and just had a good dinner with a few of them. They were all too tired afterwards and went back to their area for rest, no reason for them to run around in the night. The harmful ones are under heavy seals and wards put up by monks long ago and shouldn’t even crack at this time.

If some other critters enter the area she needed to know what they were and if they posed any threat to the locals. Sometimes it was other wandering ghosts, or vampires and werewolves needing to migrate to another country because of their accidents. They are fine, she just need to inform them to keep it down to not wake any of the more nasty residents. She doesn’t want to kill anything, it’s tiring.

It could also be some teenagers from the city nearby. Last time she was here the city wasn’t even built and it was wilderness for miles around, and the Japanese Wolf was not yet extinct. And if that were the case she needed to chase them out of the woods as soon as possible. Night time in the woods was always dangerous regardless of your race. Not to mention they were going to wake up some other creatures that should remain asleep forever.

Carefully she grew, her form becoming larger, bigger than any usual creature in woods. Add some extra eyes on the side and back of her head for good measure. Also taking on her favourite form – Japanese Wolf. To her nothing was more graceful and powerful than a wolf, she would stay in that form forever if it wasn’t the fact a lot of things she needed to do required opposable thumbs and a lot of her powers are locked in certain forms.

As soon as the form settled she was hit with a strong scent of blood. It was so heavy and sharp in the air, there must have been a pool of it by now. This was bad. She hoped she wouldn’t be too late.

Swiftly she followed after the scent. Making sure her form was permeable enough to not get caught in any of the bushes or exposed roots. However it still rustled too many leaves and it probably alerted whoever – or whatever – was there. Hopefully they’d think it was the wind, she didn’t break off any branches as she raced towards the source. Very soon she could see flash lights in the distance and the smell of gunpowder. There were voices as well, grown man’s voices.

She stopped in her tracks as she got close. Her form was currently horrifying – it wasn’t really her intention but it just was – and she knew going into the light would immediately startle whoever was holding the gun and she definitely didn’t want to see if the guy was trigger happy. Carefully Yui shrunk herself and stuck to the shadows, she edged towards the clearing slowly and tried to peek through the dark bushes. Just to see what she would be dealing with. After the last time she jumped out blindly to save a kid, not realising she was literally being chased by an army, she learnt it was best to wait just a few more moments to know what she was dealing with.

Instantly she spotted the source of blood, a young man was lying on the floor. Both of his legs were nothing but bloody stumps. He was clutching what seemed to be the remains of a wooden bow. It was strange to her, especially the other three men were holding guns. What was he hoping to achieve with that?

_Help!_

Yui paused, ears swivelling all around looking for the source of the sound. None of the men seemed to notice the sound either. The voice felt like a tinkling sound - ethereal. Even with her extra eyes she couldn’t see anything that could have that kind of voice. Just who?

“Did they say we had to bring him back alive?” One of the men asked, he was holding a large shot gun and kept it trained on the archer’s head.

_You can hear us! Please help!_

The one near the back shrugged, and another shook his head. “Nah, and honestly I think it would be easier to carry him back if he didn’t move anymore.”

_Our Master is in danger!_   
_He can’t move!_   
_Hurry!_

He cocked his pistol and pointed towards the archer. “So let’s just kill him and-”

His words were cut off as he was cleanly cleaved into pieces.

Yui roared out, standing out in the clearing on her two legs. All those golden eyes burned like meteors. Her black claws were glistening red already.

The other screamed and immediately unloaded the shotgun on her, but the bullets didn’t even go through her hand as she crushed his skull against the tree. She could see the other already turned and ran, but she can’t let him get away. It was no effort for her either to chase after him. One simple leapt – that might’ve accidently left a tiny crater on the dirt – and she caught up to the men, his neck already between her fangs.

She spat pieces of him out in disgust. In all her years nothing pissed her off more than heartless men. Especially one that would take another life without any thought. There are already enough monsters in the world, and many of them acted more honourably than these human.

And she couldn’t resist the pleading. Those voices sounded so desperate and sad, there was no way she could refuse.

Wiping her snout with the back of her claws she half-trotted back to the archer. Everything seemed to be a bloody mess, something she definitely have to clean up before the morning. However the archer’s injuries were her top priority.

“Hey are you awake?” She whispered softly, while shrinking down her form to appear less threatening. Thankfully he doesn’t appear to be conscious any more. Which was good because she doesn’t want him to be frightened of her appearance, although it made fixing his injuries a tougher job.

Gently she moved him onto his back, a bit more comfortable position. Looking around, she noticed his legs were tossed to the side in the bushes. The blood already started to darken in the air, and judging by the jagged cuts there are no chance for any surgeon to sew it back on. So for now Yui just want to make sure the man won’t die of blood loss.

Taking a deep breath she shifted her form again. Fur receding into scales and horn protrude from her forehead. Gently she blew out a small plume of black fire and held it in her hand. She sat on top of the leg, putting only enough weight on to stop him from jerking out. Also putting the thinner part of her scaled tail in his mouth, just in case he bite his tongue. He would have enough pain soon, he wouldn’t need another.

She put the fire against the bloody stumps, instantly the smell of burnt flesh came up in her nose, as well as a sharp bite against her scales. His muffled screams and squirming made Yui’s chest hurt. She could hear panicked clanging all around. However she held his body down firmer.

“Sorry but I really need to cauterize the wounds, bear with it.” She murmured, not too sure if the man actually could hear him. He already lost so much blood.

Yui made sure to work fast. Sealing the wounds just enough that he no longer bled out. She also quickly checked for any other serious injuries, just in case. He was still beaten up quite badly, purple bruises and lots of bloody cuts. Also a few bullet holes but the blood was trickling so she would have to leave it be until she could use her first aid kit. Thankfully she doesn’t need to change form again to carry him back to the cabin, although she will have to be much bigger so she won’t jostle any broken bones accidently-

_Thank you_

She paused, all her eyes looked towards different direction. There was no one else in vicinity. Yui wished she remained as a wolf so she could swivel her ears to pin-point that voice. It took her a moment to realise where it came from. Their voices still faintly echo in her head, but the echo was louder when she looked towards his arm. She saw his tattoo, vibrant blue with the dragon curled around it. The holy serpent looked towards her, the painted eye glowed for a little bit.

“Goodness,” she huffed out a small laugh. “You have some mighty power friends there, and they are really worried about you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little late but its here! The start of flash back chapters. It may be 3 to 4 chapter long depend on if I need to split the last one :"D
> 
> Much thanks for TheL3mon in betaing this!
> 
> Find my tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	12. The Whisper of the Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanzo woke up

Hanzo woke to a world of pain.

Each breath was painful as if he was inhaling sharpened needles . Every muscle in his body felt heavy and sore. At least with what remained of it. He could still feel pain at the stumps where his legs were meant to be.

He blinked a little, forcing his eyes to open, only to see a wooden roof. Hanzo huffed a sigh, clearly he hadn’t died this time. It was hard to remember the details, but the last thing he remembered was the guns trained at his head, and then screams. He was in pain as well, his legs was been burnt and ripped off. That was about it and now he could feel that he’d been laid on a small bed and all his injuries tended to.

Carefully he shifted on the bed, craning his neck to see where exactly he was. It was hard to see clearly, the room was too dark, the only window has the curtain closed and he was too exhausted to sit up properly to pull it open. He turned his head to the side to see the rest of the room and suddenly he felt his insides freezes.

A towering black figure was at the other side of the room, sitting cross legged on the floor with bits of yarn. Even sitting down the figure was large. A pair of bright golden eye turned towards him, it held no malice but it definitely was not human and that was enough to send chills down his spine. The figure was large and practically bumping the ceiling as they stood up. They are covered in shimmering dark fur that seemed to cover every inch of their skin.

“Awake?” she asked him, hovering next to him. He assumed she was a normal female person and the beast outline was just a hallucination – _hopefully_. So far she didn’t seem to mean any threat and was incredibly gentle as she began to check his bandages. “Would you mind telling me your name?”

He took a deep breath, forcing his heart rate down. “Hanzo.” He mumbled, couldn’t talk any louder, his throat hurt too much.

“Any last name?”

He swallowed hard. Should he tell the truth? If he did there was a chance that she will kick him out and that was the best case scenario. Worst case will be her sending words out and he would be picked up by the Shimada-gumi in no time.

She however just stood back up again, humming lightly. “Tell me when you are ready then. Your injuries are gonna keep you to the bed for a few weeks.”

**Weeks?!**

Hanzo jolted up and immediately regret the action. Every muscle in his body protested and he couldn’t breathe. The figure rushed towards his side again. He felt a large hand on his back, gently rubbing as she lowered him back down on the bed.

“Don’t move so fast. You were hurt very badly by those-”

“Where...?” he wheezed out, fighting off the pain in his chest. He shouldn’t stay here for this long. They will be after him in a matter of days, maybe shorter if he didn’t manage to get far from the city.

“In my hut, in the woods of Hanamura. There are no easy ways to get to where we are.” She said and pushed him firmly back down to bed. “You don’t have to worry about those men either. They’re dead.”

She tucked him back in, patted him softly. “Rest now. You are safe here.”

She sat down next to the bed back towards him. Hanzo stared at her, thousands of questions running through his head. Not at all convinced by her words, what does she know about the Shimada-gumi? It doesn’t matter if it was through the city or the forest, they will find him. He needed to leave, as soon as possible, even if he has to crawl out for her safety.

The figure doesn’t seem to notice his worry. She picked up the yarn again, playing with the strings and started humming a gentle lullaby. It was a soft sound and slow tempo, in time with her breathing.

Hanzo let out a shaky breath, blinking a few times, trying to resist the drowsiness in his head. However it was a futile battle and soon he let the soft tone lull him back to slumber.

 

* * *

 

He woke with the warm sun streaming through the curtains. His body still ached everywhere and he could smell a strong herbal medicine in the air. Gingerly he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

The figure was nowhere to be found, there was just a large wolf snoozing on the wooden floor. At first he panicked internally, the wolf was rather large, however he thought it through quietly. The wolf most likely to be a tame one, a guard dog of sorts, otherwise she wouldn’t be so confident that this little hut was safe.

With a grunt he pushed back the covers. His heart sank seeing what was left of his legs. There was nothing left but bandaged stumps, he wasn’t surprised. Those men had used some new hard-light technology, he didn’t even have time to react as it completely decimated his legs. It was a miracle that he didn’t bleed out from the injuries. That lady has saved his life. Speaking of which...

“Where is she?” He whispered softly to himself.

That seemed to wake the wolf up instantly. It got up, golden eyes gleaming and tails wagging - way too friendly and happy to be anything wild. They even jumped up to him and licked his face. Hanzo couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Hey there.” He said, while ruffling the black fur. “Where is your master?”

The wolf huffed and shook their head. Hanzo assumed that was their way to say no idea. He looked around the cabin proper. It was a small room, with an ancient sunken hearth in the middle of the room. Walls were lined with dried plants and meat, his weapon and some of the clothes are in the corner. His bow was haphazardly repaired with duct tape and bandages, he definitely need to get a new one as soon as possible.

Hanzo pushed himself further off the bed. He figured he should have enough arm strength to at least get himself to the other side of the room. However the wolf was having none of it.

Before he could even manage to swing his legs to the side, the wolf pounced on him, pushing him all the way back down on the bed. There they lie down on top of him, they were rather careful not to put too much weight on his chest but enough so that he couldn’t do anything but feebly wiggle underneath the black fur.

“Would you let me up? I shouldn’t stay here.” Shouldn’t cause any more trouble to others than he already had.

At those words the wolf clambered over him more and growled in annoyance. Hanzo couldn’t move at all, or even have enough energy to move them off either. Hanzo sighed and laid there, wondering what to do.

 

* * *

 

Somehow he managed to fall asleep again. By the time he woke up he could see it was night time outside. The figure returned, sitting next to a low lying hearth and roasting small fishes over the fire.

Now with a better lighting, he could clearly see it was a rather young woman - definitely no older than mid-twenties. Her black hair was an absolute spiked mess, which would explain why she looked like a monster the other night. Although it doesn’t explain the height, she seemed to be like an average woman in every way.

Hanzo sat up, and she turned towards him with a smile. It was a bit unnerving to see a row of sharp white teeth and those bright golden eyes peeking through the small thin eyes, it was a bit too ethereal.

“Good evening. How are you feeling? Better?” she asked.

He nodded and she seemed to let out a sigh of relieve. She quickly took the fish off the fire and came over to him with a bowl and chopstick in other hand.

“Hopefully good enough to hold down solid food now. Here, dinner.” She handed him a bowl full to the brim with food, almost too much for one person. He stared at her, wondering if she was giving up her share of the food.

Seeing the expression, the lady just giggled. “I don’t need to eat anymore. So it’s all yours.”

Hanzo doesn’t really believe her. However he was a bit famished so he wasn’t going to argue on this for now. He finished the meal in silence as the lady busy herself with other work around the room. She was making some sort of medicine, taking herbs and dried fruits from the walls and grinding them into paste on the side. Obviously for him since she sat on the side of the bed and motioned for him put the bowl aside.

He huffed and shook his head. “Thank you for the meal and hospitality, but I shouldn’t intrude for long.”

She snorted. “You’re not. And I doubt you can get anywhere far with no legs, few broken ribs, several puncture wounds and all the other little other injuries that probably make travelling through the woods nowhere near comfortable.”

Hanzo frowned, it didn’t feel that bad anymore. Other than the missing legs, he could probably drag himself at least to Hanamura to get some temporary prosthetics. However the lady seemed to sense his intention and lightly patted his bandaged side. He couldn’t help but flinch at the sharp pain. It felt like she jabbed him with hot iron rod.

“You are not feeling that bad because this paste helps with numbing the pain and healing.” Her laughter wasn’t helping much, he looked away from her sheepishly. Thankfully she made no more comment and just motioned for him to sit up straighter and she began checking through each wound one by one carefully.

Occasionally she seemed to space out and lose track of which wound she was up to and he needed to tell her she already checked that one. At which her only reply was a shrug. “Living too long makes you a scatter brain,” she said.

Confused at those words, Hanzo asked. “Who are you?”

She paused again, seemingly lost in thought. He wondered why, it was a simple question that shouldn’t confuse her that much that she needed a full minute to think it over.

“Call me Yui.” She said finally, “Just someone living in the woods, nothing special.”

Hanzo doesn’t believe her at all. She was knowledgeable in medicine and has performed perfect first aid, despite her forgetting the progress from time to time, she never made any mistakes. Not to mention the way she speaks was odd, a strange accent was in her Japanese and her vocabulary were rather ancient.

Yui doesn’t seem to notice – or maybe care – about his questioning glare. She finished securing the last bandage and began to pack up the medicine. “You are quite injured and we are a bit far away from Hanamura. And I doubt that you would want to go back there considering those men seemed to be from there.”

“How did you know?” Hanzo asked. He wanted to check his injuries himself, but find his hand being batted away by her.

“I searched their pockets before the critters here ate them.”

“Ate them...”

“Yup, ate them. Bones and all.” She seemed to be very relieved at the thought, and worried at the same time. “When you are better and ready to go, I’ll lead you out so you will never meet that thing.”

He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of creature lurked in the woods outside that could possibly consume three grown adults within a few days. Assuming he was only out for a day or less. Also assuming she wasn’t exaggerating or anything, so far she doesn’t seem to be lying to him intentionally. No matter how farfetched some of the stuff was coming out of her mouth.

“Your friends were really worried about you though. Just what are they though?”

Her question caught him off-guard. “What?” Who could she possibly talk about? He was along when fleeing from the Shimada-gumi. Not to mention, he never had any to begin with. The only one that could have cared was dead, and it was his fault.

“Your dragons. They were the one that called for help. Good thing it was me who heard it, if it was anything else-”

Suddenly a shriek sounded out from outside. High-pitch and inhumane, making Yui sighed.

“Oh dear. This form might not be good for tonight.” She mumbled and her face began to melt off. Literally melt off into wisp before reforming into a long snout.

Hanzo covered his mouth, not really to muffle the gagging noise, but more to ensure he doesn’t lose his dinner so soon. Regardless Yui noticed it and came over to him. It doesn’t help that she was already looking like a weird amalgamation of wolf and man. He takes in several short breath, trying to calm himself down.

Then he felt a hand on his back, rubbing soothing circles. He doesn’t dare look up, but she already seemed to understand and stood directly out his line of sight. Letting him take his time in getting everything settled.

After a few more moment, he let his hands go and sighed, knowing his stomach finally settled down. Once he leaned back in bed, he found her on the bed as a large cat – _giggling_.

“You can have two dragon spirits in your arm and you are surprised that I am a shapeshifter?” she said, wiping tears off with her small paws. “Does that mean I shouldn’t mention these woods have about twenty different species of yokais?”

Hanzo was pretty sure he didn’t manage to hide the surprise on his face since Yui jumped up to his shoulder to pat his head.

“I’m joking... There is really only a handful, rest of them are restless ghost who refuse to pass on.”

At that a pot flew from the hearth and slammed itself against the door. All the fire in the room snuffed out by an unseen wind. Yui merely rolled her eyes and shouted. “Todoroki-san if you do that again I’m gonna unearth your bones so your family will find you!”

Instantly the pot flew back next to hearth, upright and refilled with water. Unfortunately that seemed to make the fire in the hearth die completely. Hanzo stared and this time Yui didn’t even need prompting to give him a small explanation.

“Eh... Todoroki-san was a merchant in the Nara Period. He didn’t tell me what he did, but for some reasons he really don’t want any of his descendants to find his bones. So I have been helping him scattering it around the woods so no one could find the complete set.” She hopped off the bed and becoming larger than before, animal features faded a little and returning to more human face.

After seeing the transformation the first time, he was a lot more prepared for the sudden changes, as disturbing as it looked.

“The reason no one could find my hut easily was because I have lots of powerful neighbours, and they hate trespassers so so much.” Although most of them are much tamer than that large critter that was now loitering around the area, it came into the area just as Yui took Hanzo in. It will become a problem later, but Yui elected to ignore it until it was a problem.

Hanzo suspected that Yui’s neighbour was taking advantage of her presences rather than the other way around. She probably could turn into something much larger and menacing to scare off any one living. The non-living was another matter entirely.

From little he was a little sensitive to things that many others can’t see. He saw his dragons long before he was able to materialise them for others to see and for them to show up on his body – signifying their bond. In turn they protect him from the harmful spirits, snarling and chasing them away, consuming any of the smaller one that dare coming too close. As he grew older, they grew stronger and he was able to summon them in battle and hurt more than just spirits.

The only one who also sees were Genji, his father and his mother. He remembered looking up to her as one of the powerful miko in stories. Her rage could easily send any weak willed spirits scurrying away. Yet after dinner she would gather him into her lap in one of the balcony and letting the friendly yokais sit around as she sings.

Despite having power to lull or chase away spirits. It couldn’t help her against a dragon. A dragon as violent as...

Hanzo stopped himself there. Right now he has a bigger problem. “If my Dragons attracts undesirable things around here it is better I leave as soon as possible.”

Yui was starting to look mildly annoyed. “Hanzo-san seriously you are not a burden here. I helped you because I want to and so please just rest until you are better.” She stretched and fully transformed into a wolf, just like the one he seen this morning. “It’s not a crime to take a slower pace.”

_Keep up. Don’t you dare fall behind._

He shook his head, tried and failed in ignoring his father's voice. “I need to get some of my equipment. Since my bow is now broken.”

She stopped in her track, her golden eye seemed to be drilling into him. “You have a spare? Where did you leave it?”

Hanzo looked away. Thinking of the farthest place in the local area, that would sound feasible, but also far enough away so she wouldn’t notice him leaving. However she posed some new problems as she stood back on two legs.

“Well I probably can track it down through the scent, but I just need to know if it’s a safe house or a hotel.”

“They are at a safe house.” He didn’t factor in the probability that she has access to abilities of different animal. Although hopefully the thought of a safe house bunker would make her take extra time or allow him to slip away from her when she blanked out.

“Then did those men ambush you outside?” She asked.

“As I was moving on to the next.”

“Doesn’t that mean you have all your equipment with you don’t you?” She glared at him as he remained silent, refusing to look at her in the face. Yui just crossed her arm. “You are not a very good liar.”

She huffed and pushed him lightly, trying to get him to lie down. “Look right now you can’t leave because you don’t have legs. So for now - rest. Wherever you need to go, I can carry you there. If you need to see your family-”

“Don’t have them.” He resisted the push, not wanting to lie down at all. Rather he clenched his fist into the sheets. “Not anymore.”

“What happened to them?” she asked, sounding curious and sympathetic. Hanzo felt his stomach lurched again. He was been pitied here.

Hanzo stayed silent. There was no point in answering her. She was a stranger and he was never intending to stay long. He does not need her pity, nor does he deserve it at all.

“Did you kill them?”

He choked on his breath. “I... I...”

“If you did... It changes nothing.” She said softly. “You are hurt and I am here to help.”

Hanzo stared at her with wide eyes. “But...”

“But what? You didn’t tell me your whole story. I don’t know how you were raised.” Her form suddenly seemed to fall apart and shift with each word. Her head melted to black mist that only a partial of her human face remained. All seem to bubble and fizzed around her. “And you are definitely not the first killer I patched up and care for.”

Rage bubbled up inside his throat. What does she know? “Has any of them killed their brother? Their _kin_?” He yelled at her, ignoring his lungs complaining at the treatment.

“Yes.” She spat back at his face. Her body continuously bubbling vapors, it barely resembled anything humanoid anymore. Just swirling mass of shimmering black, with half a face and partial arm, claws clenched tight to the point the talons skewer through the palm. “I- he has spent thousands of years wallowing in his own guilt. You honestly believe I can sit by and watch someone else do it again?”

“Ye-”

“ **No**! Fuck that.” She snarled.

Silence fell over them as they both catch their breath. Yui begin to pace around the room, holding herself close, trying to hold the form together. Hanzo buried his face into his hand. Thousands of question runs across his mind, he couldn’t keep up, he doesn’t know what to do.

He know he has to get away from Hanamura, especially since how close Shimada-gumi got to him. But Yui was right as well, he won’t be able to get far without legs, meaning he needed to get some prosthetics. Meaning he has to go back to town at least and he would be needing help. Help she was offering. But why?

“Why... Why are you helping me?” A stranger... A killer...

“Why do I ever need a reason?” She let out a breath, her form settling back to a woman, looking very exhausted. She mumbled to herself. “Be kind, always be kind. When the world is cruel, kindness will be the only thing left.”

She went to the window and pulled the curtain close, only letting a sliver of moonlight passing into the dark room. “So for now - sleep. If you seriously have more question. We can discuss this in the morning when you are less nauseous.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nara Period: 710AD-794AD Japan
> 
> Sorry for the little delay in the chapter. Life and illness got in the way.
> 
> Give love and thanks to TheL3mon for betaing this!
> 
> Three more reflection chapters to go = w=)b
> 
> My tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	13. Worth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Acquiring new limbs takes some favours from another world

Several days have passed, and Hanzo’s bandages had been slowly removed. Nothing much happened other than Yui fuming when she saw the brand on his shoulder. Hearing his explanation made her walk out of the hut to scream into the wilderness.

Despite her overreacting about the brand with anger, she was very patient. Never once pushed for an explanation when he didn’t want to answer but did not hesitate to answer all the questions he posed for her. From how long she’d been alive, to the limits of her shapeshifting powers. The only thing she didn’t explain were the things she didn’t know or remember anymore. Which was a lot...

Yui was often forgetful, not remembering where she put down an item or whether she had it in her hand still. Sometimes she talked about events as if they were still happening and needed a moment to remember that it had happened long ago, or even had never actually happened. However Yui was very much aware of her scatter brain and when she made a mistake she would merely shrug it off and continue. Saying, “lived too long.”

The only thing she never seemed to forget was when someone came along to visit. It only happened once or twice, but she would always tell him beforehand. The visits were short, just quick exchange of words and items before they left just as quickly as they appeared. He never sees them.

He hasn’t seen any spirits for years now - including his dragons.

Hanzo was pretty certain his dragons had long abandoned him, disgusted by what he has done and fled elsewhere. Yet Yui was insistent they are still around and were worried for him, never quiet for very long. But he hadn’t heard from them or seen them for five solid years. Ever since that night in the dojo.

Even most other spirits were now invisible to him. For a long time he’d just assumed they fled from him, knowing the blood on his hands. Yui proved him wrong, telling him when they were around. Even going as far as throwing some stuff to spirits for them to catch. Most of the time they fumbled and dropped the thrown riceball or apple, but the food floated long enough for him to recognise that something was there.

He just could not see nor hear any one of them. It was his punishment, he was sure.

“Haaaanzo,” Yui yelled. She trotted into the room as a wolf. On her back were clean clothes and a hairbrush, which were dumped on the bed as she turned back to a somewhat humanoid looking creature. At some point she had dropped the honorifics and just called him by his name. He didn’t remember when but he didn’t really mind either.

“Here, you probably don’t want to look that dishevelled today.” She pointed at the mess of bed hair that he didn’t deal with when he woke a few hours earlier. Admittedly, he had been slacking off in the last few days. Being unable to leave the bed often made him feeling too lethargic to do much, which include brushing his hair.

“Another of your friends coming along?” He asked.

“Yup. He travelled all the way from Greek to help.” She said and sat down with her back towards the bed to give him some privacy in changing. “Hephaestus is going to visit and craft you some legs. They will act like some of the high end prosthetics on the market with just a little touch of magic to make them more fluid and sturdy.”

Hanzo blinked. Hephaestus? The Greek god of blacksmiths? It was hard to believe that those figures were real, especially since the stories of them were often far-fetched and translations of the mythology were difficult and haphazardly guessed. Then again he was brought up with many spirits and deities of his own, so he shouldn’t hold such a judgement. But why would Hephaestus come all the way across the world to help? What did Yui do to get a Greek God to do something for her?

Apparently Yui seemed to read his mind and answered for him. “I promised Aphrodite to punch Ares every time I know he was in the area.” She giggled. “She was just a little annoyed that he spread the rumour to the other Greeks that she slept with a bastard like him. So in turn Hephaestus gives me favours from time to time for making his wife happy.”

Hearing that didn’t make Hanzo feel any better. “You are not concerned with-”

“Punching someone who has been worshiped as God of War?” She blew a raspberry in the air. “ _Please_. I know two other immortal beings of war and he will never be on par with them. Plus they would be happy to help me kick his ass.”

Hanzo sighed, not wanting to argue with her about it. At the very least this meant he might be able to start walking again.

 

* * *

 

Hephaestus as it turned out, was a lot shorter than most Greek depictions, he was barely up to Hanzo’s shoulder. Also more clean shaven and more scarred, mostly burn scars than anything else. One of his legs was shrivelled and dead looking, barely held together by a contraption of steel and glowing stones. Still all in all he seemed to be a rather jolly old man. He shamelessly greeted Yui was lots of cooing and ruffled fur.

“How are you? Phiphi sends her regards.” He said in between neck scratches, speaking English since he know Yui’s Greek was horrible and also because he had never learned many other languages himself.

“Eh I’m fine. Thanks for flying here on short notice.” Yui did not move much, despite wanting to just nuzzle in and return the affection. Hanzo was riding on her back and the movement might unseat him.

Having no legs had forced Hanzo to be mostly bed-ridden. She noted his foul mood within hours and offered to carry him around so he would not be stuck to the bed the whole day. At first Hanzo vehemently refused, finding the idea rather off-putting since he knew what Yui actually was. Even though he knew she was right, it was either that or he had to somehow crawl around the whole hut.

He still tried the latter.

By lunchtime Hanzo was stubbornly trying to traverse the hut by just walking on his hands. It worked pretty well thanks to his muscles, but he got tired often because he was still recovering and it took a lot of energy. It was afternoon by the time Yui finally had enough and just wiggled herself underneath him and began carrying him around to where he needed to go. She did not make any comment about it. Hanzo was grateful and also said nothing.

That didn’t mean she stopped him from going around the hut on his own, even going as far as finding a pair of gloves for him so he would not scrape his hand so much on the floor.

Just like now he said nothing as the Greek deity knelt down to look at his legs. Thanks to Yui’s medicine the wounds had all closed up. It couldn’t do anything about the ugly scarring but frankly he didn’t care. He deserved that.

“My goodness, who did you piss off to have this kind of damage? Not a clean cut at all, not even with a sharp weapon!” He scowled and running back to the chariot, where his toolbox laid open. There were tools glowing with weird auras jutting out of drawers, endless pits of glowing stones and gems, not to mention one drawer that had black mist spilling out from the corners and a large padlock right on the handle.

“Well they aren’t alive anymore.” Yui commented, however seeing the look on the deity’s face she sighed. “No I did not eat them. I never do that, why do all of you Greeks ask me the same damn thing?”

Hephaestus shrugged. “Regardless. I don’t think I can use the human version of a coupler-”

“That’s why I asked you.” Yui growled in annoyance.

“And that’s why I need Dragon Fire! I don’t carry that thing around all the time! I need to craft it.” He pulled out a large black piece of metal and dumped it in the clearing. “Hurry up. Chop chop!”

Yui rolled her eyes, before looking back up at Hanzo. He nodded, knowing what had to be done.

Quickly he slid off her back and shuffled to the side, as far back as possible. Hephaestus also took a few more steps back to let Yui shift into something else.

After a lot of cracking sound with scales popping out, her claws lengthened into talons and a pair of branching horns protruding out her forehead. Yui stood before them as a dragon. She was long and lithe, literally curling around the whole group with her black scales shimmering like the night.

“How hot do you want it?” she asked.

“5000 Kelvin.” He said, already standing in the middle of the clearing with a worn hammer and some more crystals in hand.

Yui scrunched up her nose. “Stop using science standard.”

Hanzo sighed. “It’s roughly 4700 Celsius.” He had to wonder how someone who lived for so long still couldn’t do simple temperature conversions.

“Thanks Hanzo! Now try to stay behind me.” She shifted a little to make the bulk of her long body block him from the center of the clearing. She took in a deep breath and slowly bellowed out a small stream of white blue fire.

Instantly Hanzo could feel the intense heat, even with a dragon body blocking most of it he still felt like he was next to a furnace. It was a miracle that no leaves or grass seemed to be bursting into flames at the intense heat. The were just wilting and withering, turning to brown in an instant. Yui must have been doing something to keep the heat contained. Still, he felt like he needed to shifted back even further to not get cooked alive.

“Don’t think a mortal should stay around for long.” Hephaestus shouted over the roaring fire, he seemed to be standing in it.

The fire fizzled out and Hanzo could hear Yui wheezing for a second breath. “His dragons are shielding him.”

The greek deity sounded much more annoyed than before. “You know very well I can’t see some of your spirits. And this still is not gonna be very comfortable to any mortal.”

Yui made a sighing noise. “Hanzo you okay going back to the hut yourself?”

“Yes.” It was a short distance, and the path they took to the clearing was a relatively smooth one.

“Okay, we won’t be long here. Your dragons will call for me if anything happens.” She turned back to the clearing and began to let out streams of fire again.

Carefully he followed the path back, keeping his body up and above the ground as much as possible as he walked on his hands. It was still difficult to open the front door so instead he rested in the shade of a tree outside. However, even this far back he could still feel the heat of those flames. He couldn’t imagine how bad would it be if Yui or his dragons. hadn’t shielded him.

Hanzo sighed and rolled up his sleeve, looking at the dragon inked into his arm. The blue was as vibrant as the day the image came up on his arm, when his dragon bonded to him completely. It was a small comfort to know that the mystic bond was exactly as his mother described. Eternal and powerful, the spirits bonded to him would remain loyal to him. Even after all he has done, his dragons still remained with him and protected him. Still...

“I wish I could see you two again.” He murmured, touching the dragon tattoo on his arm.

Hanzo meditated while he waited for them to return, pointedly ignoring the Greek that was shouted in the distance and random bursts of coloured flame. It actually didn’t take them too long before they come back. Yui was back as a human again; soot covered every part of her and she was constantly coughing. Hephaestus on the other hand looked very pleased with himself.

He was skipping merrily holding a pair of mechanical legs in his arms. “Haven’t had to work for something this complicated for a while! This was incredibly fun.”

Yui coughed out plumes of black smoke and mumbled something lowly. The deity didn’t seemed to take notice. Instead he plopped himself down in front of Hanzo and motion for him to show him his legs again. He laid out the prosthetics on the ground in front of him. Hanzo couldn’t help but raised his eyebrow at the design.

The dark metal was segmented and seemed to be held together by something unseen. Blue jewels seemed to peek out from the knee area, glowing faintly. As Hephaestus bent the limb around it seemed to be incredibly flexible. All in all, it just seemed really frail looking, especially the ankle area where it was the skinniest of the whole legs.

“Yui told me that you enjoyed climbin’ so I added some extra stuff.” He tapped the metal toe and small glowing spikes protruded from the end. A ring of blue could also be seen on the sole of the feet.

“Go ahead try it on,” Yui said. She sat herself down next to him, still trying to wipe off the soot. “Quick warning though. You are going to feel a shock as your nerves connect to the crystals. There is no way around that.”

Hanzo nodded. He picked up the leg and positioned it carefully against his stump. The prosthetics immediately clamped onto his leg the moment it got close enough, sending a shock through his entire body. He managed to at least clench his mouth shut, not a peep came out as the jolt passed.

Yui stared at him with concern. “You good?” she asked.

Hanzo nodded, not trusting to speak with his muscles still feeling jittery with that huge shock.

She sighed, clearly unconvinced. “Take a breath, this will take a while to get used to.” Gently she took his newly attached leg and began rubbing against the joints, especially the area where it connected to his flesh. It still sent small jolts up his leg but it was muted. Surprisingly he could feel the pressure on the metal prosthetics as well. As if they had now become part of his body.

“When you are ready, put them both on. We have to test this out.” She let his leg go and handed him the other one.

This time he was a little more prepared, bracing himself as the prosthetics latched onto him and the shock running through him. Soon the jolt passed and he gingerly flexed his foot.

The response was incredibly fast, just a thought and the limb moved as smoothly. After a few stretches and twists, he tried to stand up once again, bracing against the tree for support. Yui immediately got up as well, shifting into a wolf again, but so much larger. She stood beside him, letting him grip her coat for more balance. The prosthetics held him up just fine. It shouldn’t be surprising since it was crafted by a deity of blacksmithing, but it still was.

Hephaestus seemed to be more or less giddy that the legs were working as intended. He remained on the ground, grabbing the prosthetics and testing their movement. “Usually it take time for dead nerves to recognise they aren’t so dead anymore. But seeing how you are up and all, I bet by tonight you can walk around like normal again.”

“Thank you.” Hanzo said. Slowly he let go of Yui’s coat and took a few tentative steps. He was still a bit wary of the new metal limbs and trying to regain his balance, but so far there seemed to be nothing to be worried about.

Yui let out a breath with a smile, relieved. “So would you also help with his bow-”

“I won’t make weapons. Nuh uh, not after what the whole fiasco with Ares and Artemis fighting and almost bringing Greece down... AGAIN.” He huffed, picking himself off the floor before whistling for his chariot to come along.

“Well I guess that means we have to go to Miyagi Fox Village now.” Yui stood back on two legs and scratched the back of her neck, wondering what would be the best way to get there without going through too many cities. If possible she would need to become a griffin or something equally large to fly across the sea.

“Oh! So you are going to that Koto kid.”

Yui snorted. “She is only a hundred year younger than you. Give her a little more credit.”

“She can achieve so much more using metal rather than those silly little magic tree branches. The sooner she gets her head out of fantasy the better.”

“Considering we all exist in the human realm of fantasy I don’t think that applies.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.” Hephaestus kicked in the drawers. Runes began to spill out and spread across the drawer and soon the whole chariot. The jewel began to glow brightly and the chariot slowly began to lift off from the ground. “Well I need to get back, don’t want to keep Phiphi waiting at all. Take care now. Both of you.”

Yui gave a half-hearted salute. However the Greek deity didn’t fly off immediately. He stood on the chariot staring at the half-wolf woman.

“Yui... You know no one in Olympus understood you. Neither does those in the Valhalla or the Palace in the Sky.” He stared at Hanzo for a bit before turning back to her. “You have such great power and-”

“This is what I choose. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She cut him off, her voice suddenly become cold and brittle.

Hanzo couldn’t help but back away from her slightly. He has seen her lose her temper before, but it was all minor and sometime almost comical – which he would not mention. However this, it felt like she was ready to murder someone right at the spot. Even Hephaestus stood back a little, hands raised.

“Just sayin’... Everyone think it’s a waste...”

“It isn’t to me.” Her form flared and bubbled with each word.

It was clear the conversation was over. The Greek deity just shook his head with sigh before kicking the chariot into gear. He waved them goodbye but Yui was no longer looking at him. Not even as he sped away into the sky. She looked towards in the distance, lost in her thought.

“Yui...” Hanzo start, but she just shook her head.

“You wanna ask what was that all about right?” She sighed, scratching her neck. “I existed for a long time and met a lot of other immortals and things that you guys consider as Gods. Many of them don’t hold humanity in high regards.”

Which was to be expected, after all a normal human is mortal, whatever they do or try may not ever matter since time will kill them soon enough. It was one of the reasons why many immortals ended up choosing to ignore humanity forever, finding interacting with them tiresome and meaningless.

“So every time I take in a human... Care for them... They think I’m wasting my time and power. Especially since I outlived each and every single one of them.” She murmured softly, staring at her feet which were beginning to dig up the grass.

“Why then?” Hanzo asked.

“Why what?”

“Care for humans. Why do it at all?” And why him? Surely she would gain more if she cared for someone else.

Yui just shrugged with a smile. “I can’t help it. When I see someone in trouble I just want to help.” Her form solidified finally. She still looked like a half-wolf, but smaller and less menacing. “I’ve never needed a reason other than I want to.”

Hanzo looked away. He agreed with Hephaestus. If Yui was truly as powerful as she seemed, then taking care of him was a waste on her ability. Much more and much better things could be done if she did something else, if she concentrated on someone else. However she didn’t seem to realize or even care.

“Okay now let’s get back inside. It will take some time for you to get used to the prosthetics. So we probably should work out a path you can practice on.” Yui said cheerfully, going back to full wolf again. She stood next to him, waiting for him to move.

Hanzo walked with her carefully, making sure to feel each step carefully and try not to rely on her for support. He was quiet for the rest of the night, something Yui noted but chose not to question him about it. He was grateful for that, but also silently hoped she did not read his mind for what he was planning to do.

 

* * *

 

Yui went out in the middle of the night. Becoming an immortal meant some things are locked behind transactions and favours, so she had to pay Hephaestus for the prosthetics. Thankfully she had enough favours gained from a lot of spirits of alcohol to gain some good wine for him and Aphrodite.

Although sending them over to Greek from Japan needed a little ripping in the fabric of space time. It might be best to make sure she was far from everyone in case she made some mistakes. Also she didn’t want anyone to see her true form - even if she didn’t know if it was her true form or not.

She was a little worried leaving Hanzo alone in the hut. There are things in the woods that would be happy to consume a dragon to gain their power. Even with all the protective wards, promises from neighbouring spirits, and the fact he has regain his mobility, she couldn’t help but feeling just a little worried for their safety.

Especially since she found out exactly what that critter was.

So Yui tried to send through the wine as fast as she could and ran back to the hut. She came back home just as the sun begin to peek through the curtains. Yui hoped Hanzo would still be asleep, she needed to talk about his plans. What he planned to do and see where she could help him get there.

“Haaaanzo~ Wake up~” She called out into the hut, hoping to hear the annoyed grunt from the archer, or even seeing two ethereal dragons floating out of the room to greet her.

But there was nothing.

Instantly Yui was worried, she ran into the room where he would be sleeping and found the bed empty and made. She quickly searched the rest of the cabin. So far there was no sign of breaking in or any fighting, meaning Hanzo wasn’t taken forcefully and might have just left. She soon spotted his backpack missing from the corner and the cupboard where she kept her medicine had been opened. Now she got an idea what happened.

“That idiot,” she mumbled to herself as she stepped outside. The darkness solidified her into fur and paws, as well as a nose that could track the scent of medicine a mile away. She ran into the woods quickly.

Hopefully she could find him before anything else did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find it that it makes perfect sense that his prosthetics were made by someone who makes a lot of delicate but powerful shit. Which was why the ankle part was so darn skinny.
> 
> [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) beta'd this one! Much thanks and love to them.
> 
> Also if people wondering if there is any schedule to these chapters. There will be probably none for November and December, I'm in the middle of the move and don't have as much time to write. Sorry about that > n<"""
> 
> My tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	14. When You Feel Your Sins Crawling Towards You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deep in the woods, all sorts of things come out.
> 
> Alternatively...  
> Yui smacked Hanzo...  
> He needed that

Hanzo sat down underneath a tree, panting and rubbing the joint where the prosthetics attached to his body.

They were right, it did take some time to get used to this. He had already stopped once before, needing to rest and massage the area where the coupler was attached before continuing to run. He know he should be thankful that his prosthetics does not have other problems. Such as awkward movement because of bad nerve or the loss of tactile senses. However there are other problems.

Mostly that the attachments felt tight and awkward against his skin. The metal part was beginning to dig and cut him if he didn’t move carefully. He had considered finding another mechanic to get them loosened, but since they were literally crafted by a god he probably shouldn’t just find any stranger to look at it.

If only he could contact the spirits again. Yui mentioned there was another friendly spirit at Miyagi. If he managed to get there and make contact, he could probably work out some sort of deal with the spirit there and have the legs modified. He know how to deal with fox spirits, there were plenty around his home in Hanamura. Not to mention they were all loyal to his mother.

Hanzo frowned. He shouldn’t expect them to be friendly towards him. Not when he had long failed her. Not when he couldn’t even see any of them.

He sighed and got up again. It would still be a while to get back to Hanamura, even more if he wanted to get back without any more Shimada-gumi finding him. Or Yui...

It might have been very rude of him to just up and leave in the middle of the night, but he couldn’t just stay any longer. Not when he knew she could be helping someone else other than him. Getting him prosthetics was already too much, but she was planning to help him get used to moving around with them. He didn’t really deserve this and since she couldn’t be convinced to stop, he would just leave. Making her free to help someone who would need this more

Suddenly there was rustling behind him. His hand immediately went for his throwing knives. He didn’t have many of them left, but they should be enough to fend off any large creature. Yui said there was a rather unfriendly one roaming in the woods, hopefully he didn’t encounter them at all. As for people, Hanzo was certain he could probably outrun them. He would be forced to rest longer after the sprint but at least he would be able to get away.

He let out a small breath as a small rabbit pranced out from the bushes. It was a small brown one as well, a perfectly normal rabbit. Hanzo huffed, he was getting too paranoid. Hard not to when dealing with a shape-shifter. However he was still not prepared to turn around and come face to face with a giant wolf. The snout was practically inches away from his face, bright golden eyes seeming to glow and she looked absolutely not amused.

“Yui?” he said hesitantly. Hopefully it was her and not something else.

She huffed. “You are lucky it’s me and not any of the other things in these woods.”

“Why are you here?” Hanzo let out a breath that he did not realise he was holding.

Yui looked more annoyed than before. “Finding you. Duh.” She stepped back a little, allowing him to continue on the small path. He did so, avoiding her gaze. However he could still hear her trotting along behind him.

“Why did you run off like you’re trying to escape? I could have just taken you back to town if you told me you needed something.” She asked.

Hanzo shook his head. “You don’t need to-”

“Do you have a problem asking for help or are you just a giant ass?” She snapped, glaring at him.

“There was no reason for you to help me.” He said flatly and tried to walk faster, however she was not giving up at all.

“There was no reason for me _not_ to either.” She countered.

He clenched his fist. “I am a killer-”

“I’m friends with two embodiment of war, that is not a good excuse.”

He chewed his tongue, stopping in his tracks. It was hard to guess what to say to her to get her to go away. Hanzo had hoped that being rude would deter her, but evidently it did nothing, considering the way she kept pace with him behind. She leapt over his head and landed in front of him.

“You think I am an idiot for caring for you.” She said. She did not make it a question, just stated it as if she had been reading his mind the whole time.

He looked away from her. “What would it matter what happens to me.”

“It matters.” She said firmly. “It mattered to me, it mattered to them. You don’t live in a bubble Hanzo.”

Them? He didn’t know who she could be referring to. There was no one else left. Both his parents were dead. The elders were hunting him down. His only brother was dead because of him.

He opened his mouth to begin to argue back, but Yui held up one of her paws. She was no longer looking at him. Multiple eyes appeared on her head and stared at all different directions. The sounds of insects and animals around them had ceased suddenly. He could feel the air getting colder by the minute despite being in the middle of a sunny day. It took a while for him to notice but there were black tendrils and smoke surrounding them and they were getting thicker by the moment.

Something was wrong.

“Hanzo, run. Get back to the hut.” Yui said, growing bigger and gently nudging him back.

“What is going-”

“They are after your dragon. You can’t fight them when you can’t see.” Suddenly all her eyes pointed towards one direction. He looked towards where she was looking but there was nothing there, just small wisps of black. Yui was losing her patience. She head-butted him down the track. “Just go! I can hold them off for a bit.”

Suddenly something hit her neck, brutally shredding her flesh. She snarled and bit back against... something. He couldn’t see what it was but he could hear its pained screech as it struggle to get out of the wolf’s fangs. More than that, he could feel his dragons writhing underneath his skin. His tattoo ached and glowed, as if they were underneath his skin and _panicking_.

He couldn’t bear losing anything he cared for again.

Without thinking Hanzo screamed out. “Take me! Do not harm them!”

Yui paused, standing stock still while holding back the darkness, her golden eyes turned towards him. Each one of them was wide and open and she looked as if she wanted to say something, but the creature was still there. It was screeching and gurgling between her fangs, dark shadows clawing at her, trying to rip her apart. However all that did was draw her attention towards it.

She screeched something unholy, got on her back legs, hauled the thing above her head, and threw it. Trees and shrubbery were smashed and broken as the thing flew into the distance. Then she turned towards him. All her eyes literally burned in their sockets, golden fire crackled and flecks of sparks risen out of it. She looked at him – snarling.

Hanzo froze. His father’s image appeared before him, looking down on him with disdain. He knew it was not him, it was still Yui standing before him. Those facts still did not dislodge him from the spot, still did not get rid of the old fear that crawled up from his stomach to crush his heart.

He stared down on the floor. Maybe this is when she would abandon him, or better yet, just outright kill him. Like what father had done to his mother.

It would be for the better.

_Slap_.

He blinked. Yui had slapped him in the back of his head. By any means the slap should have hurt a lot more, considering the talons and her body size, but it only just stung. Even then she was cradling his face gently. She looked furious and heartbroken. He hadnever seen her this sad before. Angry? Yes, her temper showed her furious face often enough, but this. This made him feel guilty.

“Don’t you ever say that. Don’t you _dare_ say you don’t matter.” Her voice crackled, a strange chime seemed to be mixed into it. As if it wasn’t just one voice, but three speaking at the same time.

“I-”

“We hear you. Even when you can’t hear us.” Her golden eyes faded, leaving just a blue glowing socket on her face. Her wolf features melted, turning more dragonic; with a bushy beard and branching horns - still looking as mournful as ever. “It hurts when you don’t treasure your life like we treasure you.”

Another scream ran out once again. Yui turned back towards the distant darkness, pulling away to howl and snarl at the looming darkness. She tackled headlong into battle again, leaving behind two ethereal serpents floating before Hanzo.

_Please_

Their voices chimed into his head. He’d thought he would never hear their gentle voices again. However as much as he wanted to savour this moment, the thing wouldn’t let them.

He could see it much easier now. Not that there was much to look at- it was literally a mass of black squirming liquid, maybe with an unnecessary amount of misshapen eyes and mouth, as well as lot of thin gangly arms tipped with sharp black nails. It clawed and snarled at the wolf, who had grown further in size and was pushing the mass back.

The thing was not deterred by that at all. Screeching, it opened up one of its larger mouths and latched onto her shoulder. Yui let out a shout, clawing at its eyes to try and get it to let go. It still continued to maul her arm even as she scratched its eyes out. Eventually her arm lay limp beside her, dangling by a thin thread of black.

Hanzo took out the throwing knife. It may have been small, but it was sharp. Quickly he leapt up and jumped in between them. He made short work of the misshapen limbs, letting them drop to the floor and melt into pools of black. He winced when his legs protested against the sudden rough movement. However, he ignored it; he needed to ensure everyone’s safety first.

It screeched at the loss of its limbs, but promptly regrew more and it swarmed for him. Yui tackled them aside and bit down, shredding it between her teeth. A few scraps of shadow still managed to worm their way passed her. They slithered along the ground or wove across the sky before being promptly shredded by Hanzo.

Despite everything, it was clear Yui was slowly getting overwhelmed by the creature. Her form was shifting, parts of fur flaking off to black mist, her body growing smaller. Sooner or later the thing would kill her.

He himself couldn’t keep up. There were more of its arms getting passed Yui, all grasping for his two dragons. He couldn’t cut them all down in time. Fortunately somehow his dragons were growing faster and stronger with time. They either flew out of reach in time or were capable of consuming a whole limb. Unfortunately this actually caused the thing to switch targets – namely, to him.

Two particular limbs managed to get passed Yui and head straight for him. Hanzo cut off one of them in time, but the other managed to slap him back. Its sharpened tip sliced into his chest and launched him off his feet. He landed a few feet away, his dragons flew to him. He could hear their distressed gongs as they landed around him.

Strange, since he was the one worried about them. He knew the dragon spirits could be destroyed completely, he had seen it happen. He would not allow them to suffer the same fate. So he didn’t even have to think when more sharpened claws flew towards his dragons; he forced them back into his tattoo.

If he took the hit, the spirits would survive. It didn’t matter what happen to him.

Yui dashed in, taking the hit that was meant for him. Claws sunk into her sides, tearing it apart. Black vapours gushed out from the wounds and she could barely herself up now. Hanzo couldn’t bear to watch any more.

“No! Stop! Just stop!” Why was she still defending him? Why did she not run?

“IF YOU WANT ME TO STOP THEN STAND THE FUCK UP AND HELP!” She got up and pulled on the creature’s arms, slammed the creature down the earth before slamming her claws down on its head. She winced as it formed thorns to tear into her paws. It was not deterred by her attack either, not even getting up, it swung its jagged blade-like limbs at them all. With nowhere to dodge and Hanzo down behind her she took the hit, letting the blades tear into her side again. Despite that she still stood there, refusing to let the demon come close and screamed out to Hanzo. “YOUR DEATH WILL NEVER VINDICATE YOUR ACTIONS. SO JUST GODDAMN LIVE!” She formed another pair of claws on her hips. The second set of limbs grabbed hold of the blade, preventing it from being removed from her.

Hanzo ground his teeth, pushing himself up. All his new wounds protested together with the old but he ignored it. The dragons writhed in his arm. Lightning crackled along his tattoo and he could hear them loud and clear.

They wanted out, they wanted to kill this creature for hurting her. For hurting him.

He switched the knife to his left hand and drew a symbol in the air in front of him. It sparked in the air with energy, before sinking into the blade. His dragons moved underneath his skin – poised and ready. Hanzo had no time or energy to wonder why it worked after so many years, there was only a small window where he could strike and he would not fail this. He would not let any more harm come to his dragons or Yui.

“Watch your footing!” Hanzo shouted, his only warning before dashing between them. Swiftly he used both Yui’s limbs and its’ as footholds to jump up higher. The arms grasped for him, but Yui slashed them back. She even manoeuvred her body to give a foothold to let him get higher, sending him all the way above the canopy.

Soon he could see the whole creature. It wasn’t as large as he first expected, or maybe most of it was destroyed as it grappled with Yui. Regardless it was a good shot- he should only need one throw.

The knife flew down from above, sending out a shower of tiny sparks as it embedded itself into the creature. Yui backed off quickly; she didn’t know what he was doing but she knew a strong spell when she saw one.

Seconds later twin dragons burst into the clearing, twisting and tearing the thing apart. Thunder raged around them, completely charring the trees and the earth. The creature screeched, slipping into smaller puddles, trying to get away. However it could do nothing. The lightning spread far and wide, chasing down each piece and incinerating them into nothing.

The clearing went quiet again.

The quiet was broken with the sound of branches breaking as Hanzo fell through the trees. The branches actually didn’t hurt as much as the charred, torn up earth when he finally landed. His prosthetics gave out immediately underneath him. Hanzo fell back, gritting his teeth as his prosthetics sent out electric shocks up through his body. His dragon did not hesitate to claw and bite the joints until the prosthetics were off. Even when they lay on the ground, the two legs were still twitching and sparking. Something must have been damaged from the attack. He didn’t know how to check it, and he doubt Yui did either.

She didn’t look all that better as well. Her form was wisping everywhere and her steps were unsteady as she lumbered over. Yet she still asked, “You alright?”

He looked up from the ground. His dragons were circling him, chirping and making tinkling noises, so very concerned for him. He could feel the charred rocks digging into his sides, definitely jabbing at some of his old wounds. Those are probably open already. Still despite everything he couldn’t help but reach over to grab one of his sparking prosthetics and wave it in front of him. “My apologies. It appears I cannot stand.”

Yui snorted, which then developed into soft rampant giggling before she gave up completely and just laughed aloud. “Eh close enough... I bet Hephaestus will be pissed this broke so quick,” she said as she wipe her tears away and walk over to the archer. Her form shifted to something large, still somewhat wolf-like but much larger. In fact it was large enough that she could fit Hanzo in the crook of her arm – cradling him.

Her other arm was still dangling by her side by thin wisps of black, it hadn’t transformed like the rest of her body. In fact it looked like the black smoke was desperately trying to knit it back to her body but kept being torn with each small movement. Hanzo frowned at the sight. She did say it would recover on its own, but to suffer that kind of damage...

“I can hear you thinking. Quit that.” She snipped, carefully standing back up again. “My arm will be fine after I eat and sleep for like several hours or something. So don’t get into any trouble while I take a nap will you?”

Hanzo huffed. “You can read minds as well?”

“Not part of my skill kit. I’m just good at guessing.” She had to, if she doesn’t want that to happen again.

Carefully Yui walked back to the hut. The two dragons circled around her. One of them sent small lightning shocks as they flew, warning off any other spirit that dare to come close. The other was corporeal enough to carry the two damaged prosthetics along, albeit barely, and they were dragging along the ground. Hanzo couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

They were just as protective as before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GREAT GOOGLEY MOOGLY I FINALLY HAVE INTERNET BACK  
> So let's celebrate with a chapter and some actions. Next chapter will the last of this reflection arc.  
> Next arc is when thing went wrong :U
> 
> Much thanks and love to [RaedaQUING](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaedaQUING/pseuds/RaedaQUING) for betaing this in between school work <3
> 
> My tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	15. It Is Not Easy to Heal a Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to reflect on the battle at hand

“What were they?” Hanzo asked.

Yui looked up from the prosthetics. They were resting on the floor next to a low table, where his prosthetics were laid open on it. She had chosen to try and repair it as much as possible herself, hoping to not have to call for Hephaestus to come over and fix it. Progress was slow since she only had one arm that was solid enough to hold tools. She was in her human form, but her edges seemed to fizzle and flake, not quite solid. Almost like a blurry photograph. Hearing his question she just sighed and threw down the tool completely.

“Vermins.” She laid her head on the table as she drew in the air. Black wisp came together to form shapes. One dark figure stood in the middle of a magic circle, black goop bubbling up around it, similar to the one they just fought. “Long ago a wizard created them to gather spiritual energy. Souls, magic, small demons and etcetera...” She waved her hand again and suddenly the figure was beheaded and turned back into dark wisp. However the creatures remained circling around it. “He’s dead now, for a very long time, but those things remained. Still doing everything it can to consume spirits and souls.”

She closed her hand and let the creatures fade back into mist. A beat of silence, then she spoke again - quieter. “They tend to target suicidal people though.”

Hanzo blinked. “What?”

“People who have little or no will to live. Those thoughts called to them. They know souls like that are the easiest to take.” She sighed softly, twirling bits of black mist. “It was one of the reasons I wanted you to stay in the hut for a bit longer. At least until I managed to find and kill the thing.” It had taken her a bit of time to realise what they were though. The thing had done quite well in hiding their presence from her. They just did not hide their path of destruction. Either way she did not expect him to actually try to sneak out or the fact the thing was bold enough to come right for him.

The archer felt guiltier than before. He was being selfish in wanting to leave as soon as possible. An action which led them both being battered and bruised. Especially to Yui who shouldn’t have gotten hurt because of him. “I’m sorry.” Hanzo said quietly.

Yui let out a breath through her nose. She had a soft understanding smile. “Don’t apologise for that. Those thoughts are hard to stop. Though that _doesn’t_ mean you should stop trying.” Her golden eyes drilled into him – almost glaring right into his soul.

Hanzo had to look away, but even that didn’t seem to lessen the effect. Eventually she picked up the tools again, going back to the prosthetics to carefully thread the glowing wires back together again. He remained quiet, ignoring his dragons that were both crawling around the cupboard. He had left them corporeal enough to interact with object, even if it drained him a little. Usually he would worry but at this point he didn’t care much, he was just grateful that he could finally see them again.

Not to mention there were now thousands of questions swarming inside his head. It was hard to find a point to focus on and think through. Where should he go afterwards? How should he get there? Would he have to encounter more spirits? The fight at that time burned through so much of his energy, he knew he probably wouldn’t last if the fight dragged on too long. Speaking of which, he wondered if there was any way to increase his stamina when using those old spells and wards. Now that he knows he could actually use some of them it would be beneficial to get better at it. Would it be safe to venture back into Hanamura castle for those old tomes? Would it still be there after all these times?

“So what are you planning now?” she asked, breaking his train of thoughts.

Hanzo took in a deep breath. After all Yui had done for him, he felt it was the least he could do to be honest with her. “I… I wanted to atone for what I have done. And so far...” He stopped, looking down on his hands.

“Mhmm...” Yui also put down the tool, giving him her full attention.

“I don’t feel like I did enough. Just never enough.” He said quietly.

Yui huffed, shaking her head. “But you did _something_. It made a difference.”

“It’s small.”

“Doesn’t mean it was meaningless.”

Still Hanzo didn’t feel like it mattered much. So far he had managed to dismantle some of the Shimada crime rings, but he knew more were spread far and wide. Even now the clan was working just fine without him. Despite the fact that the main operation was stopped by Overwatch. How they managed that he didn’t know, nor did he really care. The problems were the underground and well-hidden operations and branches that were scattered throughout the world. At any time they could easily rebuild the Shimada Empire, probably to something more disgraceful and dangerous.

He wanted to wiped the slate clean. Destroy what killed his little brother and maybe rebuild something better in its place. Maybe that will be what he could do to redeem himself. Becoming a better person...

Yui stared, smiling knowingly. “Do you want to continue on? You can let me help. There is no shame in trying to get better.“

For the first time in a long while, Hanzo smiled. “Thank you.” He said quietly.

“You’re welcome. And you two need to get out of the cookie jar.” She shouted at the two dragons sniffling around the kitchen cabinet, not even turning around. He assumed she had formed eyes in the back of her head to see them.

One dragon pouted and slithered out of the cupboard, while the other pointedly ignored the comment and managed to burrow themselves further in. There were distinct clinking noises in there, but so far no sound of breaking glass; which was a good sign. The sound of munching wasn’t a good sign, and neither was the retching. They must have taken a bite of some herb. Thankfully they couldn’t be hurt by any mortal poison.

Dragons are strange though. When he was young he believed them to be all powerful, especially since he saw his Father and Mother’s. Both of theirs were large towering, practically hogging three rooms with their long body when summoned. However he soon learned that they are not infallible, since his Father’s was damaged - even changing colour - and was never as strong as before ever again.

Which made him wonder, how was his looking exactly the same? He thought he had lost them with the fight against Genji. At the very least something should have changed about them. Yet here they were, just as he remembered them.

Yui noticed the staring and once again guessed his thought. “Still trying to work out how you can see them again?”

Hanzo nodded sheepishly, it had been on his mind for far too long and there were no real ways to research about it. The true nature of the dragons were closely guarded secret, their very existence was almost faded to mythology by most of Japan. Even to spirits, who thought those celestial beings had long abandoned the earth and wandered off into space. Thankfully Yui didn’t seemed to be bothered by that.

“I have a guess. Wanna hear it?”

He frowned, what would she know about them? If what she had told him was all true, she had been living in the wilderness for the last century, completely alone. However, she had lived for a long time, if she could remember something that someone had told her about the dragons long ago it would most likely be true. Eventually he nodded. Even if she was just guessing, her history showed that her guesses were almost always correct.

Yui shifted in her spot. Wincing a little as the movement jostled her arm out of place. It dropped off her shoulder again. Hanzo moved, but she just waved for him to sit back down. She grasped the black wisps flaking off of her body and started sewing her arm back to her shoulder. All the while beginning to explain to him.

“You were literally blinded by your own guilt. When you saw nothing but what you have done, the spirits faded from view. They were still there but you just couldn’t see them. They were also severely weakened, since your soul was traumatized they have also become frail. When those vermin attacked, you forgot about your past, your guilt. Just for a moment. I am assuming you were more worried about your dragons?”

He nodded but also frowned. “Were you lying when you told me it was after the dragon? You have said that they were drawn to my soul.”

Yui shook her head. “Not really. They cannot discern between spirits bound to human and a human soul. So they were drawn to you by your thoughts, but upon seeing the two dragons they went after them first. Since they are the more powerful ones it will fulfill their requirement quickly. Not to mention finding a weakened dragon is an extreme rarity, especially ones that are weak enough to be taken by those things.”

She finished sewing up her arm, flexing her fingers to make sure everything was fine. Hanzo noted that her hair seemed to have gotten shorter and messier as she was stitching up herself. He made no comment and she continued on.

“When you are just concentrating on protecting your spirits, they appear to you. Because you were focusing on the present - on what’s right in front of you. Your will strengthened them. Right now you can only see the dragons right? Not any forest spirits?”

“No, just Chi and Haru.” He said, but immediately regretted it. He wasn’t allowed to name his dragons. The moment his Father heard him called that he was infuriated with him. Saying they were weapons, they shouldn’t have names.

It didn’t help when Yui had the biggest grin on her face. “Oh? You have named them?”

Hanzo could feel his face flush, despite his attempt to make it neutral. Hearing their names, both of the dragon chirped and swarmed back. Knocking over everything on the table as they jumped towards Hanzo, they coiled around his neck and nuzzling into him. Yui just smiled fondly at the scene.

“Those are sweet names. And it looks like they missed you calling them that.” She chuckled as she picked up the tools and parts that were knocked off the floor. “Anyways most of this is conjecture. I literally have no idea if this is how it works, some other immortals probably have a better understanding of these mechanics.”

She looked away from him, staring at her own hands. “What I do know is that dwelling on the past will do nothing.” Softly Yui laid her arms on the table. Slowly black mist unravelled from her shoulder like a second skin, revealing her arm underneath. It was still mostly human looking, albeit a few shades darker. It only made the scars more prominent. There were a lot of white scars running across her arms, some were small repeated slashes across the wrist, many were deep white gashes. Hanzo couldn’t see what could have caused the damage, but she give him a clue. The wisp gathered around her fingers into sleek claws. She rested them on her wrist.

“It will change nothing, it will fix nothing.” She took in a deep breath and let the dark smoke run up over her arm, making it smooth and without a blemish. “And that’s why we must always be moving forward. Not lying down and give up on everything.”

Hanzo couldn’t help but stare at her. “Were they...”

“Real? Yeah… I don’t like showing my true form because of these. Any self-inflicted injuries stay as scars. Don’t want to hear pity talk. You get that right?”

He nodded. It was part of the reason he had chosen exile over anything else. There would be no one to talk to, no one that would ask about the scar across his abdomen. He wondered what would make her do this to herself. She was always annoyingly cheerful. He didn’t expect her to have this.

“What... What were they? If you do not mind.” He asked.

“Elizabeth. I lost her to the black plague.” She gripped her wrist and closed her eyes. “I practically shredded my whole arm wanting the plague to take me instead of my other children.” She sighed, shaking her head.

Hanzo stayed silent, unsure of what to say. In all honesty he did not expect her to answer like that, it seemed like a private thing. Now that he thought about it, could Yui have already seen that scar? Probably if she had tended to all his injuries. Yet she had not asked anything about it. She hardly had asked anything about him. The few times she did, he did not answer and she did not push for more.

There were soft padding sounds. Hanzo looked up to see Yui had changed her shape again. The black wolf was a lot smaller than normal and there was a noticeable limp. It didn’t stop her from resting behind him, rumbling. “Hanzo I will not pretend I know what you are going through. I don’t even remember my family, if I actually had one even. But I know some small things that will work. It won’t fix anything, but it makes things just a bit bearable. So don’t knock off my advice until you tried it yeah?”

His dragon chirped and rumbled in agreement. Hanzo could feel his chest constrict. “I shouldn’t though.” He said quietly.

Yui cocked her head to the side. “Why not?”

“Because... Because...” He felt his breath catch in his throat. Chi burrowed their way into his hand and nuzzling his palm, while Haru huffed and rested on his shoulder. He could hear their voice clearly - it was time.

Taking a deep breath, he held on to Chi a little tighter, they in turn rumbled deep and rhythmically, curling around his wrist, reassuring him. He slowly said. “My mother died defending me. I could not ask that from another person.”

Yui sat up straight. “What happened? And do not answer if you don’t want to.” She glared, more with concern than anger. “I can tell it’s not easy and I will not ask more when you are not ready.”

Was he ready? He doesn’t quite know. Both Chi and Haru deemed it was time to share the tale. He had held on to that secret for most of his life, nobody knew about it. Not even Genji.

_She has graciously shared her own tale, as brief as it is..._

Haru cooed out, standing upright on his shoulder.

_And saved us several time..._

Chi chimed in, wiggling out of his hand to clamour up his shoulder. Joining their twin.

_She deserves to at least know your reluctance to accept her help..._  
_It would be what Kiyoko-sama would want as well..._

They chorused together. He let out a breath, the constriction around his chest seemed to loosen slightly.

“Mother was against Father training me so early.” He mumbled, staring into the distance. Not looking at Chi or Haru and definitely not looking at her. “She yelled at him in front of everyone and vehemently refused to back down. They argued well into the night and continued even when she was pregnant with Genji.” As he closed his eyes he could still see the image perfectly.

Her long black hair stark against the peachy kimono, tied loosely into a ponytail, she stood in front of him, shielding him against the wrath of a crimson dragon. Her golden khakkhara tinkling loudly with every movement, drowning out the protest of the elders. They were indignant that a woman was standing in defiance against the head of the clan. However they were silenced in minutes.

Spirits obeyed his mother, they came and silenced the men. They couldn’t be seen by most elders but they still could feel the spirit’s presence. Standing guard and giving off a strong, murderous aura, daring anyone to touch their beloved miko. Even his father was weak to it, not daring to lift up his swords towards her. Leaving her free to scoop him up from the floor and carry him off. It still felt incredible to him that she managed to carry him so easily while heavily pregnant with Genji at that time. Balancing the khakkhara while wiping the trickle of vomit from his mouth.

Still her strength was not infinite, he knew that. The spirits tended to her more closely after Genji’s birth, knowing she wasn’t in any state to go to war with his father. Yet she never stopped. Always stepping in when he went too far with the gruelling training. Taking him and climbing into her private tower, where they would watch the sun set with her dragon, giant and golden just like the sun setting outside the window. Just like the brilliant tinkling staff that called the spirits to her. She would tell him again and again that it was okay to give them names and to pay respect to the spirits. She seemed to be infallible to him then.

Yet...

“She kept fighting for me until...”

Until it was too much...

He probably wasn’t meant to see it. The last fight. He heard the sound of a great beast being slaughtered. Chi and Haru both were woken by it, they were frightened and so was he. He wanted to find his mother, seeking the only comfort he knew.

So he snuck out of his room and ran around the castle, asking the spirits for her location. He was warned again and again to go back to bed, but he begged and cried. They eventually caved and told him that she went to Father’s quarters, wanting to warn him off treating Genji the same way he treated him.

He did not hear the rest of the warning and just head for the study as fast as possible. Ignoring the dread that settled in his stomach, his dragon curled around him tight seeking and giving him comfort. They told him they could feel her anger. The golden dragon was angry. Mother’s dragon was furious. It made Hanzo more worried.

Soon the castle shook, as if an earthquake had suddenly hit. His ear felt like it was split apart with the enraged roar. He jumped the last few steps and creeped closer to father’s study, holding his breath as he slowly peeked at the opening between the sliding doors.

The dragon helped keep him quiet as he stumbled back, swallowing back sobs as he saw his mother on the floor in a pool of red.

A long silvery sword jutted out through her neck, her hazel eyes hazy and lifeless.

“It will not happen again.” Yui’s voice piped up, pulling him from the memory. She was right in front of him, golden eyes determined and bright. “Not with me at least.”

Hanzo furrowed his brows. “How can you say that?”

The laugh was surprising, Yui practically rolled on her back as she cackled. “I got burned at the stake as a witch a few times. Beheaded twice, I think for slapping some royalty I guess. Trampled under a marching army once and if I remember correctly I did got thrown into lava. Also I got shot like bazillion times.” She shook herself and sat back up. “After all that I’m still here.”

Hanzo took a deep breath. And then another. It didn’t seem to fill his lungs, rather it felt like he had swallowed thousands of needles. His head was flooded. He was offered a second chance here. But could he do it? Could he keep the promise this time? Or would he fail Yui just like he had failed his mother? He didn’t have an answer.

Yui pushed in, her bulk a heavy weight on him, a comforting weight. He found himself grabbing onto her black coat as he buried his face in her fur. Her soft rumbling soothing against the shudders that he could not control. His dragon curled along his arm and neck, tingling electricity to soothe his fried nerves, chimes of bells ring in his head echoing into his rattling heart.

“It’ll be alright. I promise.” She said softly, nuzzling against his face, rubbing away the tears. “I have a good gut feeling about this.”

Yui said nothing about the painful grip, or the way he sobbed absolutely silently, keeping his face away from her. Her heart ached at the sight. Even when breaking down he would not allow himself to let anyone see or hear it. Yui rumbled deeply, holding herself still and letting him take his time.

There was no need to rush.

 

* * *

 

He ended up staying for another month. The attack by those things left more injuries that needed to be tended to. Not just his own, but also on Yui.

She was forced to stay in a smaller form to recuperate, namely her true human form. Not that she knew if she was human before this, but it looked human, just heavily scarred and small. More than once she open drawers just so she could climb to the top shelve to get something. Even then she would force herself into other forms if it meant getting things done, regardless whether she would be too tired and end up napping for the rest of the afternoon.

Hanzo felt guilty about it, and every time he brought it up it annoyed Yui. Often forcing herself to a wolf form just so she could knock him on to the floor, rumbling and refusing to get up until he finally conceded and didn’t bring that point up again. Again and again she reminded him that she knew what she was doing and regretted nothing.

The dragons tried to help as much as possible. Like grabbing some stuff off the high shelves or help Yui make dinners and medicine. It drained Hanzo, so Yui often told him to not go overboard with it. She could still handle something simple. Eventually she worked out a less stressful way for both Chi and Haru to help out.

A game of tag in the woods.

Yui would mark out a route in the morning and give the dragons a map they could follow. Hanzo was tasked to catch his dragon within the one lap, relying solely on his prosthetics. At first he thought it would be easy and not quite understanding why Yui insisted on following for the first few laps. It turned out she understood the level of challenge he wanted.

The route was always densely packed with bushes, low branches and high roots. It embarrassed him to no end that the first time he tried her route, he ended crashing down a steep hill and landed in the river. Chi worried about him, but Haru laughed mercilessly with Yui. Afterward he took it more seriously, knowing she would definitely pull a few tricks on the route. Which was just as well, as it made him adjust to his prosthetics much faster. Within a few weeks he felt that he had gotten a better movement than before. He could climb higher and run longer, not to mention there was no more pain when he slid across the dirt on his feet.

Soon he was completely recovered and so was Yui. She helped him scavenge some news from town, travelling great distances in minutes, giving him newspaper and random knickknacks she found along the way. Most of them were little figurines from Gachapon, but he still appreciated them. After all, before he had to keep giving his toys and figurines to Genji, even if the gift was intended for him.

Then it was the day he set off. He needed to get back to Hanamura to restock on his arrows and see if he could find someone to fix his bow proper. Also moving on south to target one of the Shimada-gumi cells that was growing bold enough to be on the front page news. His dragon grumbled about being trapped back in his arm, even though most normal people couldn’t see them. However it was decided quite quickly that this way would be safer and more discreet. Yui stood in front of the hut fussing over his stuff.

“Weapons?” she asked as she tugged his kyudo-gi up proper.

Hanzo rolled his eye and half-heartedly swatted her hands away. “Stowed.”

“Food?” She continued on checking, not phased at his reaction.

“Enough for a week.”

“The first-aid kit-”

“In the bottom of the pack because you shoved it in before everything else.” Hanzo huffed, rubbing his forehead.

Yui just laughed. “Good! Do you mind carrying some of my stuff in there as well?”

A dramatic record scratch. Hanzo paused, stared wide eye at her. “What?”

She grinned wider. “I’m coming with.”

“What?!”

“You heard me.” She closed the door behind her, wrote the kanji for seal on the doorknob. It glowed briefly before fading. Yui look back at the archer. “What? You think your behaviour convinced me you are better? Not by a long shot buddy. I’m sticking with you until I know you are better. And this is not an argument.”

It took a few minute for his brain to register what she said and a few more to actually find the words. “It’s dangerous to travel with me.” He retorted. However Yui just snorted and glared back.

“Remind me who saved your ass weeks ago? I am not human. I can take care of myself. I need to know you can take care of yourself as well.”

“I can-”

“Both your dragons are telling me otherwise. Also...” She stared straight at him. Then looked down towards his abdomen. “I do not want to see you getting a second one there ever. You can’t get rid of me. I am by your side until you are better.”

Hanzo was rapidly running out of points to argue against. He still needed to try though, it just didn’t sit well with him that she still intended to help him that much. “There are places you can’t go-”

“Why are you still arguing with a being that has existed since the Xia Dynasty? And can also shapeshift to any creature imaginable?” She huffed.

“What about the other spirits? I am sure they would not want their protector to leave.”

She frowned, for a moment Hanzo thought this convinced her. Until he heard the spirits, Yui turned back to see numerous small spirits jumping around in the hut, chirping and cheering. As if they were the send-off party for them. “I’m sure these guys are pretty happy I am gone to nag someone else.”

Yui blew them all a raspberry and walked past him, letting him stand there in stunned silence for a bit. She also changed her shape, to her favourite one. Smaller though, knowing Hanzo would want to head to town and horse-sized wolves tend to get people to panic. It didn’t take long for Hanzo to sigh and follow behind her. His two dragons came out from his arm. They floated ahead, chirping in excitement. He hadn’t heard that sound from them for years...

 

*******

 

Hanzo’s dragons rested behind his head. Two coils of blue tangled and rested lazily over the back of the sofa. Not given enough power to be seen by others, but they still left a slight indent on the cushions. Not that anyone was paying them much attention. Another coil of green soon joined in. Genji’s Dragon appearing from above and not hesitating to dive into the blue bundle. They snuggled into the middle and the blue dragons shifted to give them some space. All of them purred in contentment.

Yui look at the brothers. It was Hana’s turn against Hanzo, and she was losing as well. Genji also tried to sabotage Hanzo’s playing, mashing the button controls and pushing him, trying to give Hana a chance. Hanzo laughed as he pulled the controller out of his reach and still managed a perfect counter in game.

She let out a satisfied rumble and closed her eyes.

There was still a long road ahead, full of bumps and potholes, but he was walking on it and not as alone as before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \+ Xia Dynasty is around 2070 – 1600 BC. Very ancient time in China.
> 
> \+ Khakkhara is a pretty well-known Buddhist equipment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khakkhara
> 
> \+ For those who wanted to know what the thing that was attacking them look like, this is actually the closest to what I imagined. Just black, with more eyes and also gooier... WARNING THIS LINK IS GOREY AND HEAVY BODY HORROR. IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE THAT DO NOT CLICK INTO IT.  
> http://foxholemonster.tumblr.com/post/165987272644/midnightmurdershow-oats-studios-volume-1
> 
>  
> 
> Many thanks to ValiantOrange for betaing this chapter!
> 
> And thus this concludes the flashback arc.  
> Coming up next...
> 
> Things go wrong  
> >:3c
> 
> My tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


	16. Fallen Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well... Shit

Month passed. Numerous missions were completed - most succeeding with flying colours. Hanzo’s presence no longer raised suspicions like it had at the start. Most of Overwatch seemed to accept him and some were even beginning to warm up to him. Yui finally felt like she didn’t have to worry if he would fit in or not. In her mind she really needed to thank Genji and Hana for doing their absolute best to drag Hanzo out of hermit mode. Hana was particularly crafty, often nonchalantly putting up challenges for the brothers.

Something as simple as who was better at origami made the two brothers argue for hours on end, and culminated in them using up ten whole packs of paper to make various origami animals; practically flooding the rec room table. Some of the paper animals might have been used as projectiles and too many paper shurikens were made to settle the brotherly conflict. It had all been in good fun. Hanzo had gifted Hana a small pink bunny origami, while Yui got a black dog which she promptly swallowed and kept inside her stomach. The last he made - with the shiniest green that he could find in the packet - was a small sparrow which he handed to Genji wordlessly; refusing to meet his eyes. It was a shame. He missed how Genji’s face practically lit up seeing the paper bird.

Genji on the other hand was well-meaning, but was unfortunately more meddling than anything else. A few times he tried to coerce Hanzo into a group activity, lying about the amount of people there. This had inevitably lead to one incident in which the older Shimada had stalked out of the room muttering a string of grumpy Japanese curses. Yui had to make sure he wouldn’t head for his sake bottle... at least not immediately. This was the least of which Yui witnessed. The rest of the plans Genji thought up to try and help his loner brother socialise were much worse. She had to actively sabotage those before Hanzo found out about it and got mad at his brother.

There were still a few people who were wary of the archer. Torbjorn was one of them, but at this point Yui thought he didn’t like anyone at the base. The exception was probably his turrets. Angela was another that remained wary but Yui couldn’t hate her as much as she’d have liked. The doctor had been the one that patched up Genji from his near death battle, so she would have seen the full extent of damage Hanzo caused. Having to fix something like that make it difficult to forgive, let alone trust the person who done it. She understood the doctor’s position, Yui still couldn’t trust her all that much but… Part of that she knew was her own prejudice. Besides, neither of them were particularly mean to Hanzo. A bit avoidant and cold but nothing actually malicious.

That came solely from the cowboy.

From the moment he confronted them in the hanger storage room, Yui disliked the man and she knew he disliked them. He had spent most of his time antagonising Hanzo. Making harsh comments that were uncalled for. Any time that the archer tried to contribute in mission meetings, McCree was inevitably the one to argue against him. It was subtle enough that no one noticed but still clear enough that it made Hanzo increasingly quiet through most of the meetings unless someone directly asked for his opinions. Every time something like that happened it was Hanzo’s sturdy grasp on her scruff that prevented her from tackling the cowboy to the floor and tearing out his throat.

Thankfully interaction with the cowboy was limited. She saw him a lot and around the base, from a clear distance, at the shooting range with his revolver, from the balcony near the cliff smoking. He didn’t ever approach Hanzo unexpectedly which she was grateful for. However, in a contradictory manner, she was pretty sure Hanzo was trying to see McCree as much as possible. Somehow, Hanzo’s time at the shooting range almost always coincided with the cowboy’s practice. When they spent time on the cliff they would end up lingering there if Hanzo spotted McCree smoking at the nearby balcony.

They never spoke outside of meetings or missions; Hanzo made that clear when she asked one night. He just wanted to be around the other man. It baffled Yui. She could not understand why he would want to spend so much time with someone who did nothing but treat him badly. Still, she knew all her comments would be - and had been - ignored since Hanzo hadn’t been writing in his journal like before. He knew she read it every night and yet he wrote nothing.

It irritated her that he seemed to enjoy finding something to torture himself with. At least this one seemed to be slightly healthier than his other methods, so she let it be.

All seemed to be well.

 

* * *

 

Few weeks later a mission came up. It was a waiting train-wreck from Yui’s point of view.

It was meant to be a simple protection mission. They were needed to guard the public debate between a delegation of Shimbali monks and the Vishkar organisation. After the death of Mondatta, the monks had become more wary of public events and contacted Zenyatta for help and protection. Naturally, Overwatch accepted. The Omnic monk was an inspiration to many and it would have been tragic for another Omnic war to sprout from his death.

The location of the debate was the Oasis City Centre; a place with many high places that were easily accessible by everyone. It was a logistical nightmare because of the amount of glass and open area which would make it difficult for Hanzo to find a good place to snipe from and still have decent cover. Thousands of people are expected to arrive, he wouldn’t be able to use Scatter Arrows to protect himself lest he injure someone with the ricochet. Not to mention any physical fights he might get into would easily attract everyone’s attention in such an open venue like this.

Overwatch was currently nothing more than a small vigilante group, their personnel was stretched thin. Many members were needed in other parts of the world and at least one person - usually Winston or Soldier; in this case the former - had to stay on base to oversee the multitude of missions. It prompted Hana to sign up for the mission. As much as she knew that Hanzo trusted the Korean soldier and her ability to take care of herself, she was still physically too young for a member of Overwatch and that made Yui worried as well. It would be better if Hana was safe inside her MEKA, but the Oasis security restricted that. Only if there was an actual attack would she be allowed to call for its assistance, as the giant bunny mech might cause an unnecessary stir in the crowd. Until then, she was forced into civies, trying to blend into the crowds with only a small pistol as her weapon.

The team would be made up of a wide variety of members. Lena and Genji were to come on the mission; they are inhumanly fast, and the two speedster always worked well together. Yui remembered her eyes getting dizzy watching the two of them running around in simulations, taking down robots faster than the computer tally could keep up with. Zenyatta would also be there; determined to help his brothers and sisters, and protect them as best he could. It helped that he could provide any healing necessary... thank goodness for _that_. McCree was also rostered to go on the mission, which she considered to be a terrible idea.

It was true that the cowboy was a fair shot, but she could hardly believe that his loud spurs which she could hear miles away wouldn’t attract attention. His ridiculous getups were hardly circumspect either, that fact and the bounty on his head made him a poor choice in an advanced and guarded city. She suspected that even if he went under a pseudonym someone would recognise him. She knew she was a bit biased towards the man for his behavior toward Hanzo but Yui didn’t care. So naturally she followed along this time. Hanzo will never be able to stop her from following him onto missions.

It was not easy though. After the first time she managed to sneak onto the plane, everyone seemed to want to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t. Which was one of the reasons she didn’t do it often. Sometime she simply reassured herself by resting in Hanzo’s pocket as a small mouse without revealing herself at all. Occasionally she would stand around with the departing group glowering to make everyone nervous – for no reason other than her amusement.

This time Winston himself was standing guard at the launch pad, well before take-off time to intercept Yui. “No.” Winston wagged his finger in front of her, eyes unwavering. “You can’t go with him. You stay.”

Yui didn’t respond, not immediately anyway. She could hear the clanking beside her as the MEKA made its way up into the plane with Hana inside. Chatter filled the air as the agents began to board. She knew sooner or later someone would ask Winston a question. If not, she could always make some sort of loud unexpected sound as diversion. From her second mouth, that she formed on the side of her stomach, she made a siren sound, it was difficult to throw her voice from a mouth that wasn’t connected to her throat, but it gave her the distraction she wanted. Winston looked away towards the kitchen.

In the moment he looked away, Yui bolted forward. Taking a few leaps and ignoring the shouting that pursued her as she jumped into the plane and barricaded herself underneath the seats. She went right to the back of the carrier, where she knew Hanzo would take his seat.

Because he _always_ took the seat furthest away from everyone.

“Yui get back here!” Winston yelled, climbing into the carrier to try and find the wolf. His large bulk made it difficult to fit his arm through the small space underneath the chairs where Yui had secluded herself, barking and whining as she dodged the great ape’s grasping hand. She nipped at his fingers occasionally; not hard, but enough that he felt it and pulled his hand back.

She could hear Hana laughing as she ejected herself out of the MEKA. “Awwww! She’s so attached to Hanzo!” Hana cooed and lay on the floor of the carrier to watch Yui huddling in the corner. The gamer reached out and scratched the back of Yui’s ear. She couldn’t help but wag her tail at the treatment but was still wary, she made sure to shuffle back as Hana tried to grasp her coat with her other hand to pull her out.

Soon the rest of the team filed in. Hanzo sighed seeing the commotion the wolf had caused. “Yui please,” he said trying to get the wolf to come out from underneath the chairs, lying on the floor and reaching underneath the seats and trying to grasp for her fur. She shuffled back further and smacked his hand away. Yui could hear the sound of a fake camera shutter from Hana’s smartphone. She knows that Hanzo would ask Hana to delete them pictures later.

“Just let her come, luv! It’s only a protection mission anyways, right?” Lena said, “easy peasy.” She blinked off to the front of the cabin, setting up the cockpit and readying for take-off.

“I do not believe she will be hindering us during the mission.” Zenyatta chimed in. He floated behind with Genji by his side. “It will also be reassuring to have another set of eyes on the field wouldn’t it?”

Hanzo sighed and apologized to Winston. It seemed that the gorilla was also feeling defeated by Yui’s stubbornness. He just shook his head and instructed everyone to be careful, before getting himself off the carrier.

“Looks like he also knew this wasn’t an ideal group.” Yui mumbled quietly to herself. Hanzo did not respond, just lightly kicked the chair leg.

The plane ride was quiet. Hana was lounging nearby already absorbed in her handheld. Genji spoke quietly with Zenyatta, discussing the debate they were about to attend. Everyone was wondering just what Vishkar would gain from these secluded Omnic monks. Lena was at the cockpit and judging by the soft murmur of conversation, McCree was with her. Yui finally crawled out from underneath the chair and rested her frame on Hanzo’s leg. She felt safe enough to shift one of her paws back to a hand. Right now she was just getting comfortable being a wolf on base with everyone, becoming the ‘animal mascot’ as Hana called it, and she didn’t want to change that now.

She traced words on his forearm, asking for details about the mission. Hanzo raised his eyebrow at her but ultimately obliged. He traced the words on her back.They conversed like this for the duration of the trip. Hanzo did his best to insert Yui into their plan without affecting everyone else. By the time they disembarked, they had formulated a solid plan.

McCree was the only one that seemed to have a problem with it. “Yer sure it’s a good idea?” He asked, purposefully waiting for others to move off before approaching the archer. Everyone else has already given their approval - some begrudging, some excited - and have left for their position. The private landing pad was devoid of all living things except for the two men and Yui.

Yui growled at him, but Hanzo just hushed her with a light tap on her head. “I have worked with Yui for several years. She is reliable.” He replied evenly.

The cowboy snorted, blowing the smoke into Hanzo’s face. “Maybe, but from where I’m standing, doesn’t look to me like you control her well.” He looked pointedly at the wolf.

“She listens. Whether she acts upon my instructions is her decision.” Hanzo kept his face neutral and voice calm, hoping that this would calm Yui down. It clearly wasn’t working as she was straining against his hold so much his arm was getting sore.

McCree narrowed his eyes at the stoic archer from under his hat. He shifted his cigar in his mouth as he made note of Hanzo’s straining arm. “Yeah, but what if she doesn’t? You’ll just off her?” McCree muttered the words under his breath. It was still loud enough in the quiet hallway.

Hanzo quickly grabbed Yui’s scruff with both his hands before she lunged herself towards McCree. His prosthetic feet screeched across the floor. McCree took the chance and he turned leaving them to head for his own position. Hanzo waited until McCree was completely out of sight before letting the wolf go.

Yui looked back at Hanzo and snarled. “You need to stop taking his bullshit.”

He sighed heavily. “He was not wrong. Back then, years ago I probably would have executed my fellow man for-”

“That’s years ago and not now,” she huffed trotting ahead. “Seriously stop taking his abuse. I don’t care if what he says has any truth to it. No one should be this much of a bloody asshole to another.” Hanzo opened his mouth to protest but she was not done. “And don’t you _dare_ say you deserve this.”

He sighed. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Fucking talk back! Where the hell was all the sass you have for me?” She hissed and began circling around him. Her ears swivelling just to make sure there were no one else in the area. “He doesn’t know what you have gone through to get where you are now and even if he had… what he was saying was uncalled for!”

Still Hanzo shook his head. “I do not want to cause extra trouble.”

Yui rolled her eyes. “I say he’s causing more trouble doing this stupid shit.”

“Regardless, we should focus on the mission now.” He said calmly and moved off ahead before she could argue more.

Yui groaned. “Fine, fine...” She ran after him, carefully changing her eyes.

The crowd was getting dense with a huge variety of people. She couldn’t trust her nose; she needed wider vision - something better at detecting movement. So for her left eye, she widened her iris into a horizontal bar. Colour was not as important so she sacrificed it for heat vision, widening the bar until it was akin to a bull frog. She kept her other eye normal so she wouldn’t bump into people, or miss something her changed eye couldn’t see anymore. Of course it might have been easier to form several more eyes each with their own special ability, but she couldn’t trust that no one would spot a multi-eyed dog among the crowd of people. This was as much as she could do safely.

Soon Yui was joined with another helper, Haru floated towards her chirping and tinkling, a graceful translucent serpent in the air. She tried to nuzzled the dragon, but her snout passed through a little since Hanzo had only sent them out to be a source of communication for them. Haru curled around her neck and their soft voice filtered into her head. When she looked up she could see that Hanzo had already settled into a shady balcony. The second dragon was curled around his neck. No doubt keeping a sharp eye out for anything strange. Chi was always the more serious of the two dragons.

The courtyard began to fill up even more. Yui watched carefully, trying to see anything out of the ordinary. Occasionally she looked back up to Hanzo’s perch or asked Haru for his status. So far, nothing much was out of the ordinary. She wandered a bit further away from the agreed area. Haru informed her Hanzo wasn’t pleased to have her out of his sight, but Yui just scoffed. They needed to cover a huge area and it would be better if she could move around to to the different corners of the courtyard to make sure she miss anything unusual.

At that moment, she spotted something in the crowd, in the mass of warm orange bodies was a swath of blue walking among them. It was strange, rarely did a vampire or any undead favour hot climates, it was all too easy to be discovered, some even complained about the odd feeling of warm skin against their frozen insides. Yet this one just walked brazenly among the crowd, even with her normal eye she could see that her skin was an unnatural shade of blue.

Yui trotted after the blue woman, ignoring Haru’s protest; too distracted to hear the dragon. She would have followed the blue woman all the way to the side of the building if it wasn’t for...

“What are you doing here?” McCree’s voice sounded from behind. Yui almost lost her form at the sudden sound. As she slowed her heart rate, she wondered just how this cowboy could sneak up on her wearing those annoying spurs-

_Oh._

He took them off.

She honestly thought that those things were permanently stuck on his ridiculous boots. Yui probably should have given McCree a little more credit. From what Hanzo described from their past missions, he could disappear just as well as her. He never missed a shot when a ring of red appeared in his right eye. She wanted to doubt the last part, humans with extra abilities were extremely rare. Hanzo had been the first she met to have an ability in the last thousand years.

McCree chewed on his cigar. “Aren’t you wandering a bit too far from Shimada?”

Yui struggle not to growl at McCree openly. Wasn’t he wandering too far from _his_ post?

Though she had promised to stay civil around him she resisted the urge. Instead she dodged past him, trying to chase after the blue lady again. The effort was immediately forestalled when she felt his hand firmly grasp her scruff; hauling her back. Haru squeaked at the hand passing through them.

He ignored the withering glare she gave him and pressed on his comm. “Oi, Shimada. Your dog is running off.”

Yui strained her ears and could barely hear the archer’s voice in the earpiece. “Leave her be. She must have found something.” Hanzo said. She sometime wondered if it was a good thing that Hanzo could seem calm and collected in any situation. She know that she hated it, his guardian spirit seemed to hate it as well with Haru attempting to gnaw at the metal digits.

“She found food?” McCree asked, keeping a tight hold on her coat. Obviously unafraid of losing a limb even with her obvious snarling.

“Unlikely, she was fed just this morning.”

“Doesn’t seem to matter to her though...” He muttered under his breath. Thankfully he let her go at that, and she didn’t waste any time bolting after that woman’s scent.

It was faint for some reasons, and Yui almost thought that woman was a ghost. Yet she was actually casting a direct shadow on the ground. Behind her, she could hear the cowboy’s heavy footstep. She considered speeding up to lose the man but thought better of it. Maybe he knew who the lady was and what she was doing here.

After turning just one corner, Yui skidded to a stop and crouched low. Holding her breath as she watched a person dressed in mostly white and purple - the uniform of all Vishkar organisation - chatting with the monk. Unlike Zenyatta, these Omnic monks wore better robes and stood up on their own two feet rather than floating. She could clearly see how uncomfortable the Omnics were, they were trying to back away; fans whirring with agitation, but the young man was insistent. The blue woman was temporary forgotten, as she was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m sure it would be a benefit to your organisation if you would-”

The monk took a step back. “I-I am sorry, but this is not my decision to make.”

“Well I’m sure you can pass this along to your-”

Yui was about to run in and slam the guy down on the floor, just anything to stop the conversation and allow the monk to ran away. However McCree beat her to it. “Hey! What’s going on here?” He shouted out, strolling in all casual as if he was just passing by. The man in the Vishkar uniform seemed to be quite surprised, he quickly putting on a false-charming smile while the poor Omnic looked nervously between them.

McCree studied them both for a few moments before bending down a little to whisper loudly to the omnic. “Is this guy hitting on ya?”

The man spluttered, face turning red with indignation. “Excuse me?”

“Hey no judgement here. But you do know monks generally are celibate right?”

As the man look increasingly flustered and angry, Yui quickly trotted ahead, wedging herself between the omnic and the other man. She could see his name badge and the Vishkar logo printed on his chest. Many question ran through her mind at that moment, but for now her priority was to ensure the monk felt safe. After all that was why they were here in the first place.

“Oh! Hello beautiful.” The monk spoke gently, kneeling down and giving her a lovely neck scratch. In turn she nuzzled into his metal faceplate, her other eye glaring at the Vishkar employee. Her pupil narrowed to a single point, surrounded by ethereal gold.

He looked as if he wanted to say something, but between the distraction she offered, and McCree’s large and imposing figure, especially with the brim of his hat down low, he was clearly outmanned.

“P- please do pass that along. I promise you will not regret it.” He offered his words stiffly before turning right around and walking away quickly.

There was a soft whirling of fans, as the monk straightened back up. “Thank you. He was getting rather impatient towards the end.” He said, bowing towards them.

“It’s alright. Tho’ what did he want?” McCree asked.

The monk let out a small sigh. “He wanted me to allow Vishkar company to visit the monastery, but after Brother Mondatta’s death it was simply not safe to have anyone visit without proper security screening. Not only that... He wanted me to pass this along.”

He held out a small usb drive. Yui had to jump a little to see it. The little thing was all black and looked brand new. There were no logos or anything to identify where it had come from. It smelt completely clean – almost clinical.

“He wanted me to plug this in to our main server. I wonder if they question our intelligence.” He sounded a little bit annoyed and Yui didn’t blame him at all.

The gunslinger looked at the drive for a while before speaking up. “Do ya guys mind if we take it?”

“Not at all! We have heard much from our Brother Zenyatta and Genji. We know we are in good hands,” he handed the drive over, “and I’m sure you have the proper isolating equipment to prevent anything horrible from happening.”

“Thank ya kindly.”

Yui went up and nuzzled at the monk. He chuckled softly and gave her more scratches underneath the neck. “I must be off. I do not want to worry my brothers and sisters.”

“Go. And tell them to be careful with these folks.” McCree tipped his hat at the monk.

The omnic bowed deeply. “We all will. May the Iris bless you.”

McCree waited till the monk has gone out of sight before turning on his comm.

“Hey guys, look like we have a bit of a problem.” McCree hold up the small little USB up into the light. From Yui’s position she could see from the shadows in the plastic, a little more shifting in the iris allow her to see inside. Looks like there were no other hidden device in there, not even a tracking bug. It could be a hacking program, like ransomware, or a worm, or something much more insidious. “Looks like Vishkar wanted to coerce something from the monks. To force a USB to them and-” Without much warning given to the cowboy, Yui leapt up and grabbed the small USB from his hand, then promptly swallowed it. “And Yui just swallowed it. Goddamit Shimada just train your dog already would ya?”

She stared him down, wondering how much of his nervous system was interwoven into the metal arm, And just about how much she could bite off before he felt it and she get scolded by Hanzo. If it came down to it she probably could tear off the skull plating and bury it in the compost bin. The important thing was that she knew the USB would be safer in her stomach. It wouldn’t get damaged and it could not receive or send any signals at all. Which made their phone perfect; it stopped telemarketers from finding them, although Hanzo would have prefered to have a signal jammer than storing inside her stomach.

McCree was walking away from her as she tried to get close to eavesdrop on the conversation he was having with someone. Anytime she trotted close he walked away, his voice kept so low that she couldn’t hear it with all the background chatter.

Except for one sentence...

“I don’t need someone like you to tell me how to do my job.” McCree said flatly and shut off the comm.

Yui took in a deep breath. She sincerely hoped it was not Hanzo on the other end he was talking with. It’s understandable that in a stressful situation one gets snappy; Hanzo did that to her several times as well. Nothing a harsh tug on the ear and a reminder on their age difference couldn’t fix, venting also seemed to allow him to calm down faster. However this was McCree, she was hundred percent certain he was being harsh because it was Hanzo. _Again._

Haru unfortunately confirmed that it was Hanzo he was talking to, as they were still communicating between one another. The did nothing to help her with her self-restraint. She could feel her anger bubbling out. The dragon squeezed around her neck, bell chiming to remind her of her promises. She couldn’t wait this mission was over and she could get back to base to steal more of his stuff. For now nothing more could be done. She has to play the part of a useful team member so this can be done as quickly as possible.

Suddenly from every direction came men bristling with guns. They wore mostly black, but clothes were mismatched and tattered. It felt odd and out of place here where everyone was neat and proper scholars. Which also made her question how they got past the Oasis Security in the first place.

“Ah! There he is!” One of the men sauntered over – most likely the leader of the group who had their weapons already raised and trained on McCree.

“Woah now fellas.” He held his hands up slowly, his stance relaxed... too relaxed. Yui could see what he was trying to do and quietly waited for everyone’s gaze to look away from her. It didn’t take long as everyone was looking at the cowboy, even more so with the leader began to talk.

“Outlaw Jesse McCree you are either stupid or brave to wander around in broad daylight dressed like this. Especially with that bounty on your head.”

“Did Vishkar up the price on it?” The gunslinger chuckled. “Can’t help but feel a little bit flattered by that.”

“Either way you-” He didn’t finish his sentence. Yui knocked him down onto the ground from the side, jaws around his wrist and in seconds her ears was filled with the delightful sound of bone cracking.

McCree didn’t waste this chance, pulling out a flash bang while everyone tried to aim for the wolf. A bright spark blinded them long enough for him to sock one of them in the face. The blow sent him straight to his buddies. Yui continued to trample over every person she could within range. She also made sure to disarm them by either pulling their gun out of their hand or just breaking their wrist completely. There were too many of them, and they are recovering from the surprise of being blinded and attacked.

Bang! The sound of a shot echoed off the walls and reverberated in her head. She hated it.

The man was was promptly knocked down to the floor by the kickback of his own weapon and Yui charging at him. The hallway went quiet, but Yui could hear panicked shouting on the other side of the wall. Immediately McCree’s comm pinged and Winston’s voice could be heard. It was difficult even for her keen hearing with the yelling echoing around louder and louder, but she had an idea what was passing between them.

“Nah it wasn’t me. Yeah. Pretty sure they are hired by Vishkar.” The cowboy sighed. “At least it’s an excuse to get everyone outta here now.”

Yui rolled her eyes and nudged McCree forward. Sooner or later someone will run up here in panic, they needed to be out of sight now. He seemed to understand her, quickly running to the side room before the first of the panicked citizens come running past. By the looks of things they needed to leave the evacuation and damage control to the Oasis security and high-tail out of here right now. Together the two ran to a side path, trying to avoid the main flood of people all rushing to get away from the gunfire – they tried to anyways.

Going past the first room there were two more gunmen, one trampled over by Yui, the other got half a round of lead loaded into their body by McCree. Their presence concerned her a great deal, they didn’t look like the bounty hunters from before; their dark clothes were in better condition and their weapons were definitely more expensive. She didn’t have much time to ponder over it though, as more men were after them. McCree did not hesitate to fire at them, landing headshots over and over. Yui tried her best to aim for those that came in from his blind spot, literally running them over with her huge frame or biting into their legs and to throw them towards their companions.

“You little shit- ARCK!” Whatever the man was about to say died in his throat as an arrow appeared jutting out of it.

Up above they could see Hanzo standing in one of the open walkways. His bow was drawn again and in a blink he shot down another behind them. Yui smiled, she wasted no time to take advantage of the cover fire and knocked down another one. Now she really had to wonder where were these men coming from? How did they get past Oasis security without raising any alarms?

There were so many around, but both men managed to take them all down without much of a fuss. Hanzo shot one more arrow to the room in front of them, a small wave pulsed from the arrow to reveal the empty room. She barked her thanks, but he had already turned to the other side; no doubt watching over Genji and Lena.

McCree looked around at all the enemies laid before them, letting out a soft impressed whistle. “Hmph... Pretty handy with that bow.” He mumbled before quickly ducking into the side room, and making a bee-line to the ORCA parked just beyond the building.

‘Oh wow’. Yui thought to herself, staring at the closed door. It was the first complement she’d heard McCree give Hanzo, and it sounded so bloody forced. Haru was chewing on her ear, trying and calm her down. Telling her that Hanzo at least seemed to be happy about it, and that should be all that mattered right? Yui wasn’t so sure. She wanted to argue back, but suddenly a loud crack in the air drowned out her thought.

_Sniper!_

Chi’s voice rang urgently in all their heads making Haru uncurled around her neck; hissing furiously. Yui quickly ducked to a corner to change shape, even though she knew anyone in the immediate area should have been knocked out cold or killed she doesn’t want to take the chance. She changed to a crow, and took to the air to see exactly what was going on.

Immediately she could see Hanzo huddling behind a wall, clutching at his side. Chi was near the wound, glowing faintly and using their power to slow the bleeding. Yui scanned his surroundings and she caught sight of the sniper. All the way across the courtyard, hidden between the potted foliage - was the blue lady from before. The one she had been trailing back before all of this had begun.

The woman was wearing something completely different from before, a purple skin tight suit and some manner of weird multi-eyed headgear. A heavy sniper rifle was in her hand, and it was already aimed towards the wall where Hanzo was hidden.

Haru chirped in her ear. The other two are ready to go; just waiting for her now. Yui nodded and flew higher, making sure she would be out of people’s sight. Particularly that sniper. There was no warning or signal, the dragon practically giggling in glee as Yui dive bombed onto the sniper’s head. Clawing and screeching into the unknown woman’s ears.

The blue lady swatted at her, trying to get her off, but that only encouraged Yui to try harder. Tangling her small talons into the sniper’s hair and aiming directly for her eyes, even cracking open her headgear. It disturbed her that the woman was treating her attack as if it were nothing more than a slight annoyance.

THWACK

An arrow struck through the sniper’s chest, going all the way through and out to the other side. Yui thought that would be it, the blow didn’t strike through the heart, but it close enough to break through her chest. It didn’t seem to do _anything_. Blood was trickling slowly below the arrow shaft, and the woman didn’t seem to _notice_ it.

Yui glanced back at the other walkway. Hanzo had his back turned, he was trying to get away. It was a short moment, but it was enough for the blue woman to lift up her gun and aim again. Yui panicked and she threw herself bodily slammed into the woman’s hand hand, digging in to her fingers.

**_BANG_ **

Haru disappeared from around her neck.

Yui could feel her insides freeze with dread. With a screech, she grabbed the arrow from the wound, pulling it out roughly and widening the injury. Yui didn’t loiter around any longer to see what damage she’d done. She flew off into the sky and went straight for the walkway that had held Hanzo. A trail of blood stained the tiled floor, leading all the way to the elevator shaft. The tension was unbearable as she followed the trail, making her way into the shaft where she finally spotted the archer. He was clearly sporting a new laceration on his right shoulder.

“HANZO!” Yui screeched, diving down the elevator shaft to the archer. She landed beside him watching the blood still seeping past his hands and the skins around it turning a purple colour. Her insides twisted. Poison, and it was working rapidly if by the way that Hanzo seemed so dazed and confused was any indication; his grip on the wound was slacking.

Quickly she shifted back to a more humanoid form, she didn’t cared of who saw her now, at that moment all she needed was to save him. She pressed against the wound; trying to ebb the flow while she mentally ran through all the poisons she knew and the antidotes required. Chi and Haru swam across his skin in their tattoo form, lacking energy from Hanzo to be corporeal. They held the wound in his flesh, trying to hold it shut and to keep the poison at bay.

“Okay- okay, so we’re going to do the same thing we did back in Budapest.” She ripped off strands of her hair and let it float towards the dragons. Rapidly her powers were absorbed by the dragon, giving them a darker outline on the skin, the light blue turning darker as her power sank in. It was enough energy for them to use their power to stop the blood flow. She and the dragons could only hope that his teammates would come back for him, it was his best bet… she _needed_ him to last until then.

Yui was about to change shape, trying to think of something that she could turn into that could suck out most of the poison. She couldn’t think of such a thing, and her train of thought was cut off by the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. She heard them coming; making their way straight towards them.

By peeking out of the elevator, she could see more men coming. All of them wearing the same black. Their guns out. Her ears were buzzing with voices; drowning out the dragon’s words. Her golden eyes burned and her body boiling over with her rage.

 

She would not lose another.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooo boy it has been a while hasn't it? :"D  
> Sorry Life (tm) got in the way of everything. Hopefully I will get back to a schedule soon
> 
> For this chapter please thank nofox and LastSorceress for their effort in parsing through this chapter. 
> 
> Comments and Kudos fuels me and them <3  
> thank you for your patience!
> 
> Tumblrs  
> Maru: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com  
> LastSorceress (Elm): http://elmartblog.tumblr.com


	17. The Monster in Wolf Clothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Genji split from the group and find something monstrous...

The crowd froze at the scream that rang out through the buildings. Panic returned twice-fold as the sound was followed by more shouting and loud gunfire. Tracer zipped in and out of the press of people, ushering them to Oasis Security groups. Genji did the same, guiding the monks to their own ships. He paused for a breather, when his dragon floated out of his back. It was strange; there were no obvious enemies around and no reason for Soba to panic, scratching at his face.

“<Calm down, what’s going on?>” He whispered to them in Japanese, trying to sound as calm as possible. What was said made his own heart beat faster. Now he knew.

Winston couldn’t help but frown at all the security camera footage, none of them could move. Some of them flickered on and off, others just showed static. He couldn’t find any fault in his connection to the camera system which meant something was interfering with the cameras directly. For now he couldn’t deal with it. He would have to leave a message for the Oasis Security to make sure that their system hadn’t been hacked. “You guys have to get out of there! Make sure all the Shimbali monks are accounted for.”

Tracer panted, slouching to the side of the aircraft to catch her breath. Her chronal accelerator beeping at the lack of charge and she wouldn’t be able to blink off anywhere for awhile. Thankfully all of the civilians were handed over and the monks have already boarded their plane, ready taking off. “Donezo Big Guy! All of them are on their airship and evacuating right at this moment- Oi! Genji where are you going?!”

The cyborg pushed past the mass, only pausing long enough to shout back. “Hanzo was hit by a sniper! I need to find him!”

“What?” Winston went through the biometric for all agents. Admittedly he hadn’t been checking it as diligently as he should, all the extra glitches had been distracting him. The cyborg was right though - Hanzo had been hit twice. That was all the information he could get from the biometric. Every single screen he had was flickering with glitches, static ran rampant to the point everything was illegible pixels. “I can’t pin-point his location. Genji wait with everyone until I can-”

“My _brother_ was injured! I am going to find him!” Genji spat out and immediately scaled over a wall. There was a chime from Winston’s speaker, indicating he had shut off his comm.

“Wait!” Tracer started after him, but was stopped by a gentle hand.

Zenyatta pulled Tracer back, shaking his head. “Let him go, he is more than capable of handling himself.”

“But that bloody sniper is still out there! It might be Widow-” She clasped her hand around her mouth, looking at the Omnic apologetically. It’s not that the word was a taboo, but she could hear the agitated whirling of servers from him. See the glow of light dim briefly as he gently landed on the ground.

“All the more reasons for him to get his brother back.” He said quietly, hands clasped behind his back as he walked away. The orbs chimed around his neck.

She couldn’t help but feel sadness settle in her shoulders with each tinkle of the mythical metal dancing around his neck.

 

* * *

 

Panicking stragglers delayed Genji as he went back to the main courtyard. He gently sent them on their way, before dashing off to find his brother once more. The last time he’d seen the other man was by the glass walkway. Keeping an eye on the crowd and anyone that dared to barge in; not the best place for a sniper to stay, but there hadn’t been much of a choice. Genji could only hope he could get there in time or run into Hanzo on the way. His brother was always so strong, and Genji couldn’t believe that he would let a rival sniper take him down. Too prideful for that...

By the time Genji made it to the perch where Hanzo was, he was no longer there. There was only a few arrows scattered on the floor to indicate that he had been here at all, not even footprints on the floor.

But there was blood here.

There was **_so_ ** much blood.

It started off as a small trail that dripped into the bottom of the elevator shaft. Right outside of the shaft was a large pool of blood; splattered across the wall and dripping off lazily to the lower levels. There was bits of red pieces scattered along the floor. Flesh but far too macerated to tell which body part it used to belong to.

Soba floated out and rested along his neck. Worried chimes echoed from them. Genji stroked their back to calm them - and himself. “I’m sure this is not his blood. Nor is this his dragons’ doing... Can you tell where Chi or Haru is?”

His dragon nodded and their eyes glowing brightly. Almost instantly they snapped out of it, as if they were shocked by electricity. Soba whined out and sulked, something was blocking their connection to their brethren; they couldn’t find their exact location. However they could tell they were on the right path, for now all they could do was to follow the trail of gore.

It wasn’t hard. The trail was nice and distinct. Unlike the bits of people and clothes that were strewn all over the place. There were weapons as well, crushed to smithereens with only a few bullet shells strewn about. They probably were trying to kill whatever had caused this carnage, but had not been able to get many shots off. Claw marks that began to appear on the walls and floors; dents that were as wide as his hand.

Genji was worried. He couldn’t tell what was killing these people, and it worried him that following the blood was getting him closer to Hanzo. Had he been chased by this monster? How come it hasn’t show up at Gibraltar?

Soba chimed in, informing him about his brethren’s panic. They could sense their worry, urging them to hurry to their locations. He wanted more details from them, but his dragon was not so willing to get shocked again trying to contact them.

He almost didn’t hear it – despite being a cybrog with all the enhancements available on the market – but the small clack of tumbling rocks was all the warning he has to dodge away the rows of sharpened teeth. The attack was swiftly followed by a giant talons, large enough to crush him if he hadn’t rolled out of the way. He didn’t stop, knowing the beast would be on him if he dared to pause. Finding one of the tallest poles around, he scaled it to the top to see clearly what he was dealing with.

Genji breathed hard, he had never seen anything like this... _thing._

The creature was large. The maw reaching from the tip of it’s long snout and past the first two sets of forelegs filled full of sharpened teeth; they glistening with blood. In fact all of the ten limbs were covered in bright fresh blood. Multiple fiery golden eyes lined from the forehead and throughout it’s back, almost reaching the tail which was tipped with the most wicked and bloody looking mace he had ever seen. The rest of the body was covered in long straight hair that dragged along the floor, painting it red with each step.

What was more worryingly was that he had finally spotted Hanzo. Chi and Haru were both with him, glowing faintly from his arm. He seemed to be knocked out and was lying _behind_ the ridiculous, violent monster in front of him. It lunged it’s long body straight at him, knocking down the pole and snarling the whole way.

He jumped down, landing lightly behind it and tried to dash towards Hanzo. He was swiftly met with the mace tail. Bright sparks flew as it clashed against his blade. Whatever that tail mace was made of it was sturdy enough to hold against his blade which could cut through a car door.

“What the fuck are you?” He shouted, ducking and rolling away from a claw swipe.

The creature responded with a scream, coming towards him with more force. He could have sworn the creature was growing more grotesque with each passing minute. The twisted antlers had definitely not been there few seconds before. Genji double jumped to be completely clear of the sharp branches crashing towards him. The thing was fast, and it had already turned around too and swipe him down in mid-dash as he tried to make a break away from this… shape shifting thing. It was by pure dumb luck that he managed to roll out from between the talons.

The fighting should have drawn the attention of his brother’s blue dragons However they remained in Hanzo’s skin and showed no indication of noticing the fight around them. It left him with little choice. The beast had to be dealt with.

“Get the hell away from my brother.” He growled the words, raising his sword. Soba curled around his blade, body poised and fangs bared.

They were ready.

“ _Ryūjin no ken wo kurae_!” Genji cried out, Soba diving into his sword, making it glow a vibrant green.

The monster crashed towards him, maw open wide. He did not hesitate to dash right in. His blade dug through the blackness easily, shredding it to pieces and sending it flying in the whirlwind. A twist of the handle changed his footing on its tongue; he cut the top of the jaw off.

That sent the creature back. He jumped off before it could throw him. Already its head was reforming. Shorter and closing over the wound, turning into a snout. Talons come for him instead, lengthening unnaturally through the air and instantly cut down by his blade. As they were cut down the limbs dissipated in the air like smoke, lingering there a dark haze of miasma. One more step. He swung his blade with all his might to send a gust of wind towards the creature. It tried to stand its ground but to no avail and was sent careening back towards the wall. Towards Hanzo.

Genji shouted, he wasn’t sure what he was saying but Soba leapt out of the blade and dashed forward, knowing exactly what their master wanted. He knew even if he put all his power into his dragon – which wasn’t that much he’d skipped too many spiritual lessons on powering up guardian spirits – they would not have made it. He remembered Hanzo always chastised him about having no awareness of his surroundings. Zenyatta did the same in a less harsh manner. This however, was the first time he regretted his actions. To his surprise the beast seemed to notice the peril to Hanzo, and actively tried to _stop_ itself from crashing into the prone man. Its claws dug into the pavement, sending rubble flying, but it wasn’t enough. The creature finally stopped with its hind leg forcefully halting the rest of its body as it collided into the wall; inches from crushing the fallen archer.

Not even one stone touched Hanzo.

Finally, all the fighting seemed to draw the attention of Hanzo’s Dragon. Both Chi and Haru sounded out an alarm, however Chi was the one that came out of Hanzo’s arm and flew up. Some of the monster’s eyes turned to watch the small dragon. Genji’s insides turned to ice short circuited.

“Chi!? What are you doing?” He shouted. The dragon continued towards the creature. Black talons reached for the little blue serpent. “No! Get back!”

The blue dragon ignored him, diving past the dark nails and head straight into the dark cloud of smoke. There was a moment of silence before a large gong sounded in the courtyard. Instantly the monster seemed to be in pain, talons holding their head, as if attempting to block out the sound. Chi floated back out from the cloud, but looked nothing like they had before. They were much larger, almost to the size they would be if they were summoned for battle. The usual sky blue had turned dark and opaque. Even the horns and claws have become dark as night. Like someone traced their outlined with a marker.

They opened their maw and roared. It was nothing he had ever heard before. The sound seemed echoed inside his body – inside his head. All the fear and anxiety seemed to be chased away by the sound. Even Soba draped their body across his shoulder.

Surprisingly, it seemed to affect the monster the most.

The creature fell to the floor writhing. It was careful in laying down, staggering to the side before sinking down to its belly. Its talons remained on the creature’s head, clutching at the hair, huffing and screeching. Chi landed on top of the creature, sinking their whole body weight on, their own talons holding the creature firmly down on the floor. They seemed to be purring as well, as if trying to soothe the thing.

Genji was dumbfounded, whatever Chi was doing was working. The creature lay on the floor meekly. The thing whined and seemed to be trying to curl up on itself. All of the eyes shut tight, and he could have sworn some of them vanished into the dark hair. He edged closer to the two beasts, not lowering his sword just yet. Chi was making soft tinkling sound, a soft indication that it was fine now.

One of the golden eyes opened, no longer burning with unearthly flame. Suddenly a realisation hit the cybrog as the eyes turned towards him, blinking blearily. He had seen those eyes before. They belong to someone much smaller in size, steals regularly and loved head scratches.

“Yui?” He whispered, sword lowering a little bit.

The creature – Yui – rumbled. She shifted carefully underneath the talons. Chi made a concerned ringing, but shifted off of her. The black was leaving the dragon’s body, they were becoming smaller and their colouring was slowly returning to normal translucent blue.

“I’m fine...” she said softly. Her body slowly flexing and stretching out, the edge seemed to flake off with each movement. “I’m calm now.”

Another realisation, he had heard that voice before. “You are also-”

“Yeah... Um... Can we talk about this much later?” Yui winced as she turned her body upright. Some of her limbs dropped off and turning into a dark puddle on the floor, her horn withered and curled back into her head. She still had multiple eyes, but not as numerous as before. Some of them were staring back towards the archer. “Hanzo was shot twice with poisoned bullets. I gave energy to Chi and Haru so they could slow the bleeding and the spreading of poison but it won’t last forever.”

“Ah... O-Okay.” Genji sheathed his sword quickly and ran towards Hanzo. He was still breathing albeit weakly, but he was alive. The cyborg turned back to Yui. “But you are going to answer my questions this time.”

She sighed and nodded. “Yes.”

“Promise? No dodging the question?” He could still remember all the things she had done to try and make sure important questions were not answered - or even asked.

Yui chuckled, holding up one of her hands. Still glistening with blood. “I would give you a pinky promise, but I doubt you want to be anywhere near my talons right now.”

The green light thinned. “You are definitely that lady and you are definitely Yui.”

She snorted, getting up carefully from the floor. Slowly lumbering towards them, her body became smaller with each step. Yui checked Hanzo’s wound one more time. Despite her misshapen form she was surprisingly delicate and gentle. Peeling back his gi just enough to see the wound being held closed by Haru. Chi had finally returned to their usual size and soon joined Haru in Hanzo skin, wrapping themselves protectively around him.

Once she was satisfied. She turned and making a shooing motion to the cyborg. “Look away now, last time I did this your brother nearly vomited.”

“It can’t be that bad-” Genji shut his mouth as Yui began to change shape.

He has seen a lot of gore in his life, both from his family’s business and loads of horror film. Not to mention looking at the mirror right after the surgery. However this? This was another level. The unnatural way her flesh melted into ghastly wisps, made bile rise up in his throat. There was no rhyme or reason for this, just something about it was making him nauseous.

In the end he had to turn away and only looked back when he felt a large snout jabbed into the side. Yui was back to a wolf again – much more dishevelled than usual with a noticeable limp – and was grinning at him. He couldn’t help but huffed out a laugh. “I stand corrected.”

Carefully he hoisted Hanzo over his back. Yui stood on her hind leg to help steady him, also handing him Hanzo’s bow and quiver. In another time she might be tempted to take a photo of the cybrog giving his older brother a piggyback ride... it looked so awkward and uncomfortable for both of them. However the two holes in Hanzo’s body made her too worried to think long about something so small.

They ran back to the launch pad. Yui remained silent the whole way and refused to answer any questions that he asked. At most she just huffed an annoyed “another place” before trotting ahead quickly.

There were still a few stragglers, gun toting and trigger happy, but Genji had no need to draw his sword. Before anyone even have a chance to lift their gun, Yui was at their throat. Not even a chance for them to scream. Haru warned him quietly, that if her eyes began to burn, it was best to not be close to her. Her anger always took a while to dissipate.

Just before they can see the main group, Yui stopped. “By the way I would appreciate it if you don’t tell others about this,” she said quietly.

“Why?” Genji did not stop, but at least slowed to a walk.

“Well for one. None of them will believe you.” Genji doubted that, but at the same time it was hard to actually tell the others there was a shapeshifting creature that had been living with them for months. “Two, I do not understand how or why I have these abilities and if it’s possible I would like less people to know it until I know how everything works.”

That one was fair enough. Talon was well-known for using everything and anything to further their goals, and so was Vishkar. She probably wanted both of those parties to know as little as possible about her. But out of all of the reason she has, the weirdest one was... “Lastly they might stop the head scratches.” She huffed, sounding very pained.

Genji can’t help but laugh at that. “Your priorities are strange.”

Yui just snorted and said no more as Lena zipped towards them.

“Oh thank goodness you are all okay. The Shimbali monks are already heading back, we need to leave as well-”

Genji cut her off. “Can you ready the gantry first? And where is Master?”

“I’m here.” The omnic monk floated towards him, a golden ball charged and bounced to Hanzo. “Don’t worry. I can tell the dragons are keeping him well.” He chuckled as the cyborg sighed with relief.

Meanwhile Lena had already zipped back to the airship. Coming back out pushing a stretcher. They carefully laid Hanzo on to it. The man was starting to sweat with the poison slowly setting in. Chi and Haru chirped in distress, they had done all they could and now their only hope was that Zenyatta’s Harmony Orbs could keep him stable until they got back to base.

Yui leapt up to the bed, draping herself across Hanzo, carefully not to put too much weight on him. Genji patted her head, he couldn’t really blame her for going berserk back there. She must have been worried sick.

“Let us hurry.” Zenyatta said quietly and helped push the gantry back to the airship that was starting up.

Inside Hana immediately came over to help haul the archer in and secured the bed in the plane. “Angela and Lucio should be back at base in time with us. There are also some biotic nodes in the first aid kit if things get bad.” Hana was stiff, her usual excited voice replaced completely, nicknames for them gone.

It was times like these that Genji was reminded that she was essentially a child soldier. Even if she volunteered for her country and was legally an adult in most places, she probably had already seen her friends and comrade perished in the war. She shouldn’t have to, but it was the reality and she had to face it again with Hanzo lying there injured. Genji nodded and patted her back. She did not return the favour, just quickly scratched the back of Yui’s neck before going to a seat and taking out her handheld.

“Good to see you back bud.” McCree came close, boots jingling. “Winston was getting worried since he couldn’t see-”

Suddenly the wolf jumped up. Teeth latched around the metal arm, and before anyone can react, she tore it off.

“Yui!” Genji yelled.

However the wolf had already retreated underneath the gantry, dragging the limb with her. Everyone looked on with horror at the way she growled through her mouthful of metal.

McCree wasted no time in removing the sparking coupler on his hand and retreated far back from the wolf. He wasn’t the only one shocked with the wolf’s behaviour. Everyone else stared at the wolf that was looking positively feral.

“Yui give that back!” Genji knelt down behind the stretcher, only to be met with a defiant growl. She shuffled away from his grasp and even dared to swat his hands away. “YUI!”

Zenyatta knelt down as well. “Calm. Let me talk to her.”

Genji glanced at the wolf. It was faint but he could see a flicker of golden flame from her eyes. Remembering the dragon’s warning, this didn’t seem like a good idea. “Master I don’t think-”

The monk ignored him and reached underneath the bed. She shuffled back, but Zenyatta was not deterred. “Yui. I can sense you are still angry.” He said softly, hand slowly moving closer, going past and brushing gently against her snout, scratching it. She responded with a light rumble. “However doing this will not fix anything. Don’t you want to make sure Hanzo is well first?”

Zenyatta waited patiently, gently scratching her neck and snout. Genji could see the flame dying down bit by bit. Slowly and eventually, Yui relaxed her jaws and let the metal limb tumble out from beneath the bed. The monk gave her his thanks and pick up the near-crushed limb.

“Do not be afraid of her. She was just upset.” He said gently as he handed the limb back to McCree.

The cowboy just nodded before turning and leaving without a single word. Genji sighed quietly, he would have to explain it to him later without revealing Yui’s secret. Also maybe help him get on Torbjorn’s good side. The prosthetic limbs looked so very crushed.

They all retreat to their respective area. Occasionally some of them glanced back at the wolf that now stood guard over the archer. Lying on top of him and not moving at all. Zenyatta and Genji sat close, conversing quietly. Both of them alternate giving soothing scratches to the wolf to keep her calm.

No one else dared to approach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much thanks to LastSorceress for betaing this chapter  
> = w=)b
> 
> If you wanna we both have tumblr so feel free to come have a looksie!  
> My Tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com  
> LastSorceress’ Tumblr: https://elmartblog.tumblr.com
> 
> Also there are some comments I didn't get to. Just so you know I read them all and spazz about it for like at least half an hour for each comment. Thank you all so much <3


	18. Swallow your Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A much needed shift in perspective...

“Goddamit.” McCree sighed and dropped the screwdriver back into the toolbox. His broken prosthetics were lying on his lap, no longer sparking but in a lot of pieces. “I dunno who will kill me first. Ang or Torbjorn.”

“With the way things are I think Yui will try to kill you first luv.” Lena said while flipping through the channels.

They were currently flying high speed over the ocean, only a few more hours to go before they landed in Gibraltar base. Angela had already arrived there and was prepping the surgery room. All they could do now was to wait patiently and maybe flip through all the news channels.

There was no news of anything on Oasis. No word on the debate, or the gun fights, or the absolute panic of an evacuation. McCree’s guess was that they were trying to keep the whole thing as quiet as possible. Whether that was from Oasis Security trying to save face or Vishkar Corporation trying to cover up their tracks, it didn’t matter right now.

“Dunno how you guys can coo to her all day.” McCree muttered as he looked through the skull plate. The left eye socket was widened by a large hole. Teeth had managed to widen it and then puncture into the metal plate underneath, wrecking too many wires for him to work out and mend.

“She isn’t always like that.” McCree glared at Lena, making the young brit sit up proper on her seat. “Honest! I mean her mood changes very fast, but she always seems to be nice and cuddly to everyone... With a few exceptions.”

“Am I one of those exceptions?” McCree huffed. Lena was never good at hiding her emotions, so her expression said everything. “I swear Shimada trained that dog to spite me.” He began packing up the tools, but he had to concede defeat, there was no way he could fix his arm by himself.

“I dunno.” She sighed, helping him pack up the tools. “I haven’t seen her this... this...”

“Violent? Yeah it’s a first for me as well.” Sure she growled at him almost constantly, but otherwise she ignored him completely. There had been no indication she was actually willing to follow her bark with her bite. Except for the time in the hangar bay, he had never felt so afraid facing down the black wolf. He was thankful he’d had his gun out first; even if he wasn’t pointing it towards the wolf.

“I mean she can be a bit of a cheeky bugger sometime.” Lena said, as she shoved the toolbox underneath the seat.

McCree snorted. “Like stealing all my stuff?”

“Not just yours luv! And she always returned it later.”

“Not any of mine.” He was still missing his cigar case. The cigar inside wasn’t anything expensive but the case was in beautiful red and gold, with horses running along the edge. It had been a birthday present from Fareeha and he didn’t want her to hit him for losing her present. Of course he could probably get it back if he asked the archer, but he didn’t want to admit to the man that his dog managed to outsmart him either. Nor did he want to talk to that brother-killer anyway.

Lena flopped back to her seat. “Still Zenny was probably right. She must be really agitated because of Hanzo’s injury.”

“Well she shouldn’t have wandered that far from him.” McCree huffed and shifted in his seat to try and get comfortable while not losing any of the screws or else Torbjorn would definitely have his hide.

Lena took out a zip-lock bag from one of the compartments and tossed it towards him. “Why were you chasing her anyway? The place where you two ended up was so far away.”

“She just ran off! I saw her start running through the crowd away from Shimada, and he wasn’t looking at her like he said he would.” He poured the small bits and pieces into the bag. Hopefully nothing was missing, but at this point McCree has resigned himself to a very long lecture from the grump.

“He seemed to know where she was.” She was surprised at that, considering that he didn’t normally seem to have a clue where she had wandered off. Today he had been given constant updates on where she was and they were double confirmed by Winston with his camera monitoring. Yui had no collar, no earpiece, and Hanzo rarely spoke unless it was addressing everyone through the comms, so he had been meticulous about knowing her location today.

McCree just snorted. “Lucky guess probably.”

“Maybe you could be a little less mean to the guy?” She sighed. “I mean I know Genji was your best bud. Both of you were practically inseparable in Blackwatch. But _maybe_ this time you might have gone a little overboard.”

“Nah he deserved it. After all that shit he put Genji through.” Back then; during Blackwatch time, the young ninja had been in constant pain, whether it was physically from the wires and metals that were inserted into his body to keep him alive, or the mental ones. Nightmares that had destroyed more than one bedside table and countless alarm clocks, and which had come very close to cutting into someone else who was just trying to wake him up. Having to sit through all of that crap, and trying to help him through it despite not knowing any of the answer himself... He couln’t understand how Genji could forgive the man so easily.

Speaking of which. “Dunno how most of you could be so friendly towards him.”

“Not friendly.” Lena huffed. That wasn’t the right word. She rocked on a seat for a minute, racking her brains for something suitable. Well, _close_ to suitable. “Less wary. I mean it’s hard to keep being suspicious of the guy when he is always so nervous around people. Like one time I was up at two in the morning to get a midnight snack, and I found him in the kitchen looking for food, and before I could even say hi he practically ran out of the room.”

She took a quick breath before continuing. “Like he doesn’t even talk much to anyone. Well except for Genji and Hana. Also probably Yui and whoever that was on the other end of that mysterious phone number. According to Genji it was a girl – although I highly doubt it, the guy probably didn’t have anyone during the last ten years. He is like a ghost the way he just appears out of thin air. Most of the time I don’t even notice he is in the room until Yui starts barking. Also my gaydar is bloody perfect, it can’t be a secret girlfriend or anything.”

McCree grumbled and sank deeper into his seat. Lena just sighed, “Just saying that maybe Genji was right. Maybe he does want to change and we should give him a chance.” She looked back towards the screen, started to flicking through the channels again. “I mean Gabe give you a chance didn’t he?”

McCree sighed and pulled the brim of his hat over his eyes.

She wasn’t wrong.

 

* * *

 

Disembarking was tricky business. Yui was unwilling to stray too far from Hanzo; obviously still on edge throughout the whole ordeal. So it became a tangle of limbs as they tried to manoeuvre around the wolf circling between their legs. She outright refused to listen to anyone’s instruction and growled if a hand got too near her scruff.

The only ones that dared to touch her were Genji and Zenyatta – the latter actively tried to haul the wolf back and failed because the wolf just dragged the monk along with her. McCree was sure the only reason that they were this brave was because they are okay in losing a limb. It might not be fun for them, but at least it would be a lot easier to fix than actual flesh and blood. Reinhardt probably wasn’t afraid of all of Yui’s growling; his size and his ridiculous bravado was enough to allow him to haul the wolf up into the air and carry her off, despite the snapping jaws. Ana was another that wasn’t afraid, Yui would listen to Ana more often than not; especially seeing the tranquiliser dart. The problem was that neither of them had returned from their missions yet so there was literally no one else on base that can wrestle with the wolf.

“Jesse! How was your arm destroyed?” Angela hurried over. “Wasn’t Hanzo the only one injured?”

He scratched the back of his head. “Well funny story actually-”

“He pissed off Yui so she bit his arm off.” Hana said flatly, coming up from behind.

“I just walked towards her!” McCree argued.

The young Korean just rolled her eyes. “Yeah. She was agitated already, and has absolutely hated your guts for the longest time ever. What do you think would happen?”

“Definitely not this!” He shook his chewed up arm in front of him.

“Either way, zero sympathy.”

“Enough!” The doctor snapped. She watched the gantry roll past her in high speed, pushed by Lena and Genji. “I will treat him then I will check whether she has damaged any more nerves in your arm. For now hand it over for Torbjorn to repair.” With that she turned and hurried away.

Yui tried to follow behind them, but was stopped by Zenyatta’s firm grip, he had finally put his foot down on the floor to stop himself from being dragged off. She whined and strained against the grip, pulling the monk along; making horrid metal scraping sound. Hana huffed a little watching the monk _still_ being helplessly pulled along. It was actually difficult to watch – and hear. Hana went over, and scratched the wolf’s head.

“C’mon Yui. Let Ang do her work.” She cooed to the wolf, tugging at her coat. “C’mon come play with me. We can go take care of his villagers and his pokémon.”

Yui stared at the direction of the the med bay, before turning her head to stare at both Zenyatta and Hana. Reluctantly she went, following the Korean girl, and whining softly all the way. This left the monk and the cowboy alone on the launch pad, the former of which sighed audibly.

“It might be a while before Hana manage to calm Yui down completely. So I would suggest you to avoid her for the time being.” Zenyatta said gently.

McCree scoffed, rubbing the stump of his arm. “I will avoid her for an entirely different reason.”

The monk chuckled lightly. However the sombre tone came soon after. “Your actions are understandable. When a loved one is injured it will be very difficult to think clearly - even if their injuries will heal overtime.”

“What are you getting at?” Honestly he could guess. The best he could hope for right now was that there would be no more lecturing until the debriefing the next day. It’s already too late in the night to deal with any more talks.

“It is probably wise to take time to reassess all the information you have gathered.” Zenyatta said gently. Floating off, headed for the med bay. “I know you have been keeping an eye on Hanzo. It is understandable given the history between the brothers, however it is a good idea to also step back and see things from a different angle from time to time.”

McCree just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah... After I send off my arm.”

Hopefully Torbjorn wouldn’t mind being woken up.

 

* * *

 

Torbjorn did mind getting woken up. He spent the whole trip from his room to the workshop complaining about the time of day, and how he just got back to base and then devolved into ranting about Reinhardt breaking his hammer again in his mission which would need repair when he finally landed. He complained that he hadn’t finish constructing his daughter’s personal workshop and lamented the fact he couldn’t find some of the better tools for her.

The good news was that he didn’t lecture McCree about breaking his arm this time. However he was less than pleased with the state that the arm was brought in. It looked much worse when it was laid out properly on the workbench. Metal plates were bent and twisted, some had large puncture holes. Numerous wires were torn into pieces. Circuit boards laid there sadly, sparking just a bit. All in all, it was a pretty sorry sight.

“You better be glad that she didn’t manage to cut too many of the critical wires. These ones can be replaced cheaply.” He held up the sheet of crumpled metal. “However she did completely crush the plating on the inside-”

“And out.” McCree held up the metal skull. He loved this decoration, partly because it looked cool and partly because he had put it on himself. It had been a feat considering he was forced to solder using one hand, and had done so with sunglasses as his only safety equipment.

“This is gonna take a few days.” He yawned and threw the metal back onto the table. “Not including today. I’m going back to sleep.”

McCree tipped his hat. “Fair enough. Thank ya kindly.”

“Yeah yeah. You get back to sleep too. Or else Ana will have your hide.” He remembered after having Fareeha, and Ana’s sleep schedule was finally forced back to normal human being she did not hesitate to enforce it on other people as well - with any means possible. Torbjorn didn’t quite mind as he also had a normal sleep schedule, albeit he stayed up a little longer if a project was involved which often caused the woman to come with her sleep dart when anything woke her up.

McCree shuddered. He generally got the bad end of Ana’s sleep darts. He never was a really good deep sleeper even as a kid and it was fine while on mission or on the run, but not so much on base. Gabe laughed at the bullet dented walls, while Jack bemoaned at the fact he need to get someone to fix it. Ana just stared straight at him and held up the sleep dart pistol. A silent promise, or a warning. Honestly he couldn’t tell back then but it did help him get out of the habit of shooting the first thing that moved when waking up.

“Will do.” He said, tipping his hat.

They split at the corridor. The old Swedish man heading straight for his room, McCree should have done the same, but he didn’t.

Instead McCree head straight for the spare archive room. He had been going there for a long while, at least ever since the archer had come to the watch point with his dog. It was a quiet place, and with a lock on the door to turn most people away, it allowed him to review Athena’s footage in peace.

He knew he didn’t have to, Winston and Soldier were doing the same. Ensuring that the elder Shimada was trustworthy before allowing him to go on any missions. They stopped after a few months, since they couldn’t find anything incriminating, but McCree continued. He couldn’t trust a man who would nearly obliterate his younger brother.

The sight of Genji when they first found him in the gutter was horrifying, he had never really forgotten it. Especially when a few days ago he had just flirted with the energetic young man over drinks. It had been an attempt to know more about the Shimada Clan but he also found the young man fun. He didn’t deserve that sort of beating. Or the weeks where he was stuck on the table; kept alive by tubes. Or the month after where he had to deal with the pain of living with a mostly metal body.

So it just felt natural for him to keep an eye on the new Shimada. For all he know the guy might have just accepted this so he could finish what he started, or perhaps even be planning to sell them out to others at the most convenient time. Whatever it was, McCree wanted to make sure it wouldn’t happen.

To be fair the archer didn’t make it too hard for him to monitor him. Most of the time he could bump into the man without much thought. Like the shooting range, he seemed to either practice a lot or somehow always pick the time that McCree wanted to practice at the range. McCree didn’t know why it happened, but it did made him debate for the longest time whether he should change his usual range times so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the guy trying to show-off... or continue on so he had more chances to monitor him.

Shimada also seemed to frequent the cliffs around the base, particularly the one that he could see from his smoking balcony. The balcony that was furthest away from the med bay, essentially away from Angela who was always chiding him about his bad habit.

It was an odd sight, watching the black wolf jumping from rock to rock and the archer following him close behind. He lost sight of them as they climbed to the other side, where the dense crop of trees blocked the view. After an hour they emerged from the small forest and took another, more open and less dangerous, route back to base. McCree made sure he got himself out of sight before either Shimada or his hound could spot him. After that he came to the balcony which was not just for a good smoke anymore.

McCree sat himself down on the dingy console chair. He didn’t turn on any of the monitors just yet. The words from his team mates echoed in his head.

Sure he wasn’t particularly close to the Hana, but he still wondered how and why she become close with the stoic archer. Hanzo was generally quiet in meetings, but at any time people questioned Hana’s capability he would immediately speak against them, harshly sometimes. Sometimes she did the same for him, although not as often. Shimada was a picture of grace and power in every simulation, out-sniping the programmed AI without breaking a sweat and even taken down Soldier and Reinhardt in close quarters combat. He hadn’t been staring; not that he would openly admit to anyone. _Ever._

Mostly the girl just spend time with the archer. She could be found sitting in the shooting range with a hand-held and bubblegum, while he stood to the side going through his target practice. Conversation between them was a few and quiet words, or he didn’t manage to catch much of it. He always found that the two immediately went quiet if he entered the room. It was a mystery and he planned to figure out.

He opened up the terminal. Now McCree would never claim he had a perfect memory, but he did know roughly when he first saw the two being rather friendly. Also knowing where the archer generally went narrowed down the search. Even given that he still had a lot of video to search through and he wasn’t sure he could look through it all.

He felt he still had to try. He quickly typed the time period and the subject, closing off anything else that he was in it, and hoping it would narrow the search down somewhat. More screens lit up showing various video from different time frames. None of them have clear audio as the camera was more for security against intruders, and there was no point in listening into their conversations. At least that was what Jack said when he first came to the base when he was still in Blackwatch. Gabe was certain it was because no one has the time yet to actually install proper microphones.

McCree glanced through all of them, trying to pick out anything that was out of ordinary. He stopped any video that already showed them to be friendly, trying figure out how it all started. What was it that he didn’t see, and yet somehow everyone else seemed to know.

It didn’t took long to find the video feed. It was at a day where most people were off base. He watched Hanzo sulk through the halls, Yui was treading ahead, and it looked like he was trying to smuggle something to-

“Cowboy why are you still up?”

To this day McCree will deny the fact that Ana Amari managed to sneak on him so carefully and quietly, he almost fell out of the chair. She was standing right behind him. Still in combat gear, face still covered in dirt; she must have just come back from her mission.

“Evening Ma’am.” He tipped his hat with a wide grin, trying – and failing – to hide his embarrassment.

The old sniper just snorted. “Being charming doesn’t stop me from tranquilizing you.” She looked up at the screens. Her brows furrowed at the videos on display. “Are you still ogling at the archer?”

McCree could feel his face heat up really quickly. “I’m not!” Although... it didn’t felt right that someone this good looking was also the cocky asshole who could kill his family.

Ana rolled her eye. “Regardless. Bed. Now.”

“Ten minutes.” He said. When he saw her putting her hand on her pistol, he quickly put his hand up. “I swear ten more minutes! I promise! I just wanna check something.”

Ana narrowed her eyes at him before letting out a sigh and pull up another chair. “You better not beg for five more minutes the next time I go to your room to wake you up.” She plopped down in the small chair and put her feet up on the table. Her hand was still on her pistol.

McCree huffed a nervous laugh before going back to the screen. He watched as the archer carefully entered into the rec room, stared at the camera directly for a moment before going behind the couch and sat down there. Yui followed, and settle down with the man.

Minutes later the door slid open and Hana entered. Ana laughed at the way Yui popped up from behind the couch to slobber all over the young girl. Hana clambered over the sofa and surprised the archer. Whatever happened next was impossible to tell with the couch was in the way. Thankfully a quick fast forward showed that after a while, Hana managed to drag the older man out and that she sat him down on the sofa. Both of them were sharing just a single console, smiling and chatting softly, with Yui by their feet.

The cowboy couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. First off he could not believe the elder Shimada was capable of smiling, most of the time he saw him it was a face of haughty disdain. As if everyone around him was beneath him. The smile was a rather odd and pleasant sight. Secondly, the fact that the two actually bonded over video game of all things was mind boggling. Wasn’t Hanzo supposed to be his age? Perhaps a little older? His face must have been hilarious to look at because Ana started laughing again.

“Oh, I remember this. Hana was looking for her DS the whole day.” She paused the video. “Turns out Yui stole it for Hanzo.”

“I wonder what else she has stolen for him.” McCree leaned forward trying to continue the video.

However Ana slapped his hand away from the console, even going as far as to push him out of the way. She closed the video quickly and put up others - night time in the kitchen. “Mostly food. The wolf was constantly trying to remind the man to eat.” She would have done it herself – _had_ done it a few times – however the man doesn’t seem to listen to her. Wary of others, she knew, so she didn’t push. Besides she knew the wolf was doing a good job of it.

Speaking of which, the video soon showed the large wolf appearing in the kitchen. Yui briefly looked at the camera before jumping and latching her maw around the fridge handle. After a few awkward movements of the head she managed to get the door opened to rummage through the fridge.

“You know, I started preparing extra to put in Tupperware so she could just bring to him without stealing it from others.” Although Ana knew that the wolf didn’t seem to quite get her sentiment yet. She watched the wolf ignoring the prepared boxed lunch in favour of stealing a whole plate of food instead. It was also possible that it was just difficult for her to hold. She mentally noted to remedy that.

McCree snorted. “It’s a dog. I doubt she would care for anything other than where her next meal was coming from.” Although now he wondered if Shimada specifically trained her to steal food for him, if that were true it meant another thing to add to a long list of things he hated the archer for.

Ana glared, even with one eye he felt as if she was staring right through him. “You laugh now. But _if_ Yui was a well-trained service dog it would actually be in her nature to keep a constant eye on Hanzo. Disregarding other people’s wellbeing was probably an unintended side-effect.”

That did make the gunslinger laugh. “Why would he need a service dog?”

“Oh I don’t know.” Ana typed on the console quickly, bringing up another screen and hitting play. “Maybe this.”

The video show the archery range. A timestamp in the corner indicate that it was at three in the morning. Hanzo was in the corner, he seemed to be maintaining his bow. However only after a few minute the bow string snapped and he seemed to be very angry. He began to pace the range back and forth, still trying to restringing the bow. Again and again he tried, but somehow it always snapped. The range door opened again and this time the archer himself snapped. Even without audio it was easy to tell he was shouting something. Yet he seemed to instantly regret it, with the way he sat down on the spot, face in hand.

Yui came in through the door and stood in front of him. She did not flinch or appeared scared when Hanzo started shouting, merely staring at him. As he sat down to review his action, she laid herself down in front of the archer and waited. A few moments later she stood up and nuzzled against the archer, carefully pushing herself under his arm. She rested there while Hanzo gently scratched her head, calming himself down.

At that Ana paused the video. “You should recognise this right? The brothers are remarkably similar.” She said quietly.

He did remember. Genji did the exact same thing.

It was after a failed mission. Nothing particularly serious, but they did end up letting one of the enemies escape. Genji was fuming on the way back and was deadly silent, making everyone else on the plane tense. He found the cyborg few hours later in the training room, destroying the simulation robots. When there was nothing left for him to cut, he paced around the training room harshly kicking every fallen bot along the way. He would have sworn Genji would cut his arm off if he didn’t make his entrance as loud as possible. And just like Yui, he got yelled at for a very stupid reason.

“He could be faking it...” He mumbled, he didn’t sound convinced even to himself.

Something Ana picked up on. “For whom?!” she said, sounding so very cross and annoyed. “This is three in the goddamn morning. If I wasn’t trying to make sure Yui wasn’t stealing food I would not have found this footage.” She stared at him for a little while, before snickering.

“In another way he is also like you Jesse.” She said.

Immediately, McCree backed off and crossed his arm. “No.”

McCree couldn’t miss Ana’s amused and smug smile. “I’m sorry I seemed to recall a scruffy stick boy back in the old days who would do everything to hide from people and slept with his back to the wall, one finger on the trigger.”

McCree shrunk back in his chair. “It’s not the same.”

“Oh?” She kicked his chair so it would swivel to face her. “So Reyes didn’t have to drag you by the ears to the mess hall and yell at the cook to give you the biggest portion? Jack didn’t have to constantly defend you whenever someone questioned why an ex-Deadlock was here? I didn’t stay up late night watching Old Westerns with you on that disgusting sofa because you got nightmares?”

“How would he have any of the problems I have?” He growled. “He is a fucking underworld prince, not just a small kid trying to steal scraps from local gangs. He never got caught and branded. He has a freakin’ castle and minions at his beck and call. I bet he’s proud of everything he has done so far.”

Ana sighed quietly. “Athena would you mind finding and showing the footage I saw last time?” She got up and leaned on the back of McCree’s chair.

“Playing video. Time. 0112 hour.”

The screen showed a dark kitchen. Only source of light was from the moon outside and a small fire on the stove. Hanzo seemed to be cooking something there, while Yui waited patiently by his feet.

“I found out about this video at the same time as the last one.” They watched him sit down with small bowl of congee. He ate slowly, as if forcing the food down with each bite. Yui trotted underneath the table, only her tail could be seen swishing on the tiled floor. “It was then I found out that this man-baby avoids all social interaction and eats alone. And then _this_.”

Suddenly Hanzo got up, chair clattered to the ground. He ran to the sink bending over there. There was no sound needed to know he was retching and emptying out the meagre meal he’d just had. A woman suddenly came out from under the table and stood behind him. McCree had never seen her before. She was about the same height as Hanzo, wearing all black and had hair wild like a wolf’s mane. She was holding Hanzo’s hair back with one hand, the other rubbing his back in a circle.

Moments later the archer slumped, but was caught carefully by the woman. Her form shifted in front of their eyes. Larger furrier arm gently ease the man down on the floor and into a sitting position. Black tail swished behind her just like her ears, swivelling in her black hair.

She sat down with him, facing him and holding his hand. Some words were exchanged before the woman changed fully back to a wolf, much larger than before. Roughly she pushed the table aside for more room before settling over Hanzo. He clung to Yui, burying his face into her fur. Shoulder still shuddering.

McCree had to take a long while for his head to wrap around what he just saw. No one had a chance or time to alter these images, and if Ana was the only one who had saw it... She definitely would not mess with it. Which meant that he just saw a wolf turn into a woman and then turn back to a wolf again.

Things suddenly clicked together somehow. The increased intelligence, always seemed to know what everyone around her was saying. Her way of disappearing and reappearing at will. If she could change into any other form it would be easy for her to slip away in one form and then return to normal.

Yet despite seeing a literal transformation of some unknown being, what still stuck in his head was the way Hanzo Shimada huddled in on the floor, shivering, breathing hard and being gently soothed by another. Not cocky, not arrogant, just... scared. Needing to cling to the wolf to ground himself back to reality, it was a far cry from the imagery McCree held in his head.

Then again, had that idea he’d held ever been correct?

Ana didn’t let him think too far ahead. “Ten minutes is up cowboy. Go to sleep.” She lifted his hat and ruffled his hair. “You can think through this in bed.”

With that she left the room with a yawn. She knew she had stayed up far too late herself.

McCree sat on that console for a long while, watching the video. He watched as Hanzo calmed down slowly, carefully extracting himself from underneath the wolf and began to clean up after himself. Yui return to human form briefly to tug on his ear, but the archer just swatted it away. Soon they both left the kitchen and presumably retired to their quarters.

He shut off the screen and left the room as well.

As he lay in bed, McCree wondered if he really had failed to notice all of this. It just seemed so obvious and yet he hadn’t realized any of it until now. Had he really that blinded by his own conclusions?

He didn’t know the answer, and happily let exhaustion take him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Throw schedule out the window-
> 
> Look I tried, but I think the universe was making sure that keeping to any semblance of rigid schedule is impossible and so...  
> OTL
> 
> anywho thanks again to LastSorceress for helping with the edit
> 
> and thank you everyone for your comment and patience ; w; <3
> 
> My Tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com  
> LastSorceress’ Tumblr: https://elmartblog.tumblr.com


	19. Reflections and Observations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next day...

The next day, the meeting were at a reasonable hour of ten in the morning. For once Soldier did take into account that most agents had just returned from their respective missions and would need rest. However it was not enough for him to cancel the meeting altogether. McCree struggled to roll out of bed. Needless to say he hadn’t actually slept all that well last night. Ana was less than kind when she come to his room. She did not hesitate to get Athena to open the door, opening the curtains and pulling his sheets away. His groans of agony only served to make the old sniper annoyed.

“Be glad it was not Jack slamming his fist on the door.” She tutted while folding his blankets away. “I left breakfast on the table. Get it before Yui steals it. She is being more vindictive than I have ever seen her.”

He resisted the urge to actually beg for five more minutes. McCree knew doing that would definitely get Ana to pull him to the floor by his ears. “Yes. Ma’am.” He mumbled, trying to force himself alert.

As quick as possible, he took a shower and made himself look a tad presentable. He decided to forego breakfast, despite his stomach’s protest. Most likely Yui had already gotten to it and he was not about to fight some sort of shape-shifting monster for food. Come to think of it, the fact he threatened her friend was probably the dumbest thing he had done.

In the meeting room was everyone, with exception of Hanzo. He was luckily not in critical condition thanks to Zenyatta and Genji’s first aid; but would still take time to awaken. Just like everyone else.

Everyone was in some state of waking up. Some of the team nursing caffeinated beverages, like tea for Ana and coffee for most others. McCree absolutely did not trust the thick black sludge concoction Hana was taking. There are a few who just straight up still sleeping and drooling on the table, like Mei and Torbjorn.

The old soldier wasted no time to start the meeting, slamming the reports down on table and making everyone startle. “Now originally I just wanted small reports from each group’s mission. However considering the circumstances I think we all need to hear what happened in Oasis.”

He flicked open the main screen showing the news report. There was no mention of debate; just about the mysterious monster slaughter. Some footage had been shown of dried blood covering the ground. The news informed them that no civilians had been harmed but an armed mercenary group that seemed to be present had been completely wiped out. Vishkar had denied all ties to the mercenary group, despite some of their lower member confirming the groups presence as ‘security’.

Mei and Lucio sat straight up, stunned into wakefulness at the sight of the carnage. Lena and Zarya stared, faces grim. Reinhardt on the other hand seemed to be excited at seeing the large claw marks, while Bridgette – who just arrived with him last night – glared at him with her hand on her forehead. Hana still looked sleepy and was not even looking at the screen. Angela already had opened up her data pad, scanning through the extra detail with Fareeha looking over her shoulder. Zenyatta and Bastion stared at the screen in silence, he might be imagining it but McCree swore Bastion was looking... sad? The omnic beeped softly to Zenyatta and the monk patted him gently. Torbjorn muttered something underneath his breath, something Swedish that made Bridgette chastise her father with a slight slap. He himself was glad that he did not take in breakfast, it would have made his stomach feel sicker than it already was. McCree glanced at Genji and noted how he seemed to sit up a tad straighter than usual.

“Report couldn’t identify what sort of creature it is. Winston lost all footage and control of the camera when it appeared.” Soldier muted the video and stared at the group. “You guys were the only ones there. So if there were any clues as to what that creature is it is important for future reference.”

Instantly McCree made the connection to Yui. After what he saw last night and how vicious she was on the plane. It made sense it was probably her going absolutely berserk at whoever injured the archer. 

“I don’t think it will be a problem anymore.” Genji said, gaining the whole table’s attention.

“And why is that?” Ana asked, her single eye felt piercing even though he knew it was directed at the cybrog and not at him.

“I killed it.” Genji said with a shrug. Face completely unreadable thanks to his face mask.

McCree stared at young man. Was he wrong again? That the beast wasn’t Yui? Or maybe Genji knew what she was and was now trying to cover up for her. He started to think the latter was more likely as Genji started to fidget with the shurikens built into his wrist. The guy rarely fidgeted under attention, unless he tried to hide something.

The old soldier rubbed his forehead. “Genji this isn’t the time-”

“No I’m serious! Hanzo was... sort of trapped by that thing.”

Unfortunately his words made everyone more suspicious.

“What do you mean sort of?” Ana asked, her eyes never leaving the cybrog. He couldn’t help but find it amusing how Genji was trying not to look directly at her. Ana had probably put two and two together and was now just watching the poor cybrog squirm underneath the carapace.

“Why didn’t it killed Hanzo?” Hana asked. Evidently she was still attentive despite not showing it. “By the looks of it the thing would literally kill anything on sight.”

Genji shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe I got there in time.”

McCree narrowed his eye at the cybrog. Despite what the younger Shimada boasted, he was a terrible liar. It was evident in the way that Genji was staring at him indiscreetly, the green glow of his visor brighter towards him than anywhere else, watching to see if McCree believed his lie. Which he didn’t, but he didn’t make a comment.

“More importantly this has shown that Vishkar is working with Talons.” Genji said proudly and lounged back in his chair.

“How the fuck would you know that?” Hana said irritably.

Soldier looked as if he was about to chastise about her language but was swiftly silenced by a kick to his leg by Ana. She did not even look up, just sipping her tea on the side.

Genji ignored it and continued on. “Hanzo’s dragon told me that a lady in blue was there. She was wandering around the conference just all casually, and definitely did not look like a scholar of any sort.”

No one really questioned how or why he could communicate with Hanzo’s dragon - or any dragon for that matter. They were just glad when the green serpent rose out of Genji’s back it was directed towards the enemy and not them. Some were curious on the nature of these mythical creatures, McCree could still remember how Winston really wanted to ask Genji how he got it but also had been intimidated by the young Shimada back then, when he was less stable and more of walking powder keg.

Mercy was one of the sceptics back then and it seemed like she still was one. She rolled her eyes at the mention of their dragon. She had never believed Genji when he explained how his family was raised alongside mystical dragons and among other spirits. Not even when he managed to summon Soba out later on in battle. After all these years she still stubbornly believed there was a rational and scientific explanation for it. 

Regardless right now everyone was more focused on the new information.

Lena in particular sat up straighter. Her chirpy tone completely gone. “Lady in blue? As in blue skin?”

“Widowmaker – Amelie.” Ana said sombrely.

Angela sighed audibly. “This would match up with the poison analysis I have on the bullet. It is Moira’s creation I can tell.”

Murmurs erupted around the table but Winston just shook his head. “As much as this is good news, I’m afraid this evidence will probably not hold up to scrutiny from the UN. We have no footage to support our claims.”

“Wait? Not even for the start?” Genji asked, he was not the only one in the room surprised.

The gorilla sighed quietly. “I was denied access from Oasis Security. I only have the start of the debate and a few minutes after the gunshot.” Winston was still awaiting email from the Oasis security on the loss of footage and their security. It seemed far too much of a coincidence for their equipment to fail exactly as the gunshot sounded. 

What could Oasis want to hide?

“Actually, yeah. What was that all about?” Hana sat up. “Who the hell tried to shoot you?”

McCree sighed, he knew this will come up sooner or later. “Followed the hound out and stopped a pushy Vishkar. Then...”

He recounted the event from him spotting Yui wondering far from the agreed area. Stopping her and then following her after Hanzo informed them that she might have found something suspicious. Which led to breaking up the confrontation between the monk and the Vishkar agent, and getting the suspicious USB off of them. Then to the mixture of bounty hunters and mercenaries that had come out in a poor attempt to ambush them. He explained that they tried to take them quietly so that it wouldn’t attract the attention of actual security or the attention of the public in the courtyard... but they weren’t fast enough and someone managed get off a shot.

Genji took over the narrative at that point, as he was directly in the courtyard and had seen the panicking crowd first hand. The Omnics immediately congregated together and the cybrog directed them while others immediately looked for the nearest building to duck into. He noticed Hanzo dashed off somewhere and McCree confirmed he came to give them cover fire as more mercenaries came out and after him. However at that point he was separated from Yui as he continued on toward to group with the rest and the wolf lagged behind. Presumably to help the archer in taking down more hostiles that were steadily coming.

Afterwards it was anyone’s guess what happened. McCree and Lena regrouped to help with herding the panicking public. Genji and Zenyatta were on the other side of the courtyard doing the same for the monks. Hana was allowed to get in her MEKA and did her best to suppress the mercenaries and Hanzo did the same until a sniper hit him and he was cornered by the monster.

According to Genji anyway.

McCree can’t help but feel Genji was intentionally vague. It supported his idea that the cybrog also knew about Yui’s nature and was attempting to cover for her. Which meant that after he had left them behind, Hanzo probably spotted Widowmaker or vice versa and began sniping at each other. He didn’t know who had won the fight but considering that Yui had gone berserk, Hanzo’s wound was probably from the Talon Sniper.

She probably hadn’t escape unscathed either, he had seen Hanzo shoot. He won’t miss. McCree might not like to admit it, but he had stood back in the shooting range a few times just to watch Hanzo go through his practice. It was amazing the way each shot always land dead center.. One time he couldn’t hide his amazement as Hanzo shot through two training bots with a single arrow. And so he had no doubt that having just gotten shot would stop the archer from hitting what he had been aiming at.

“So where is the USB now?” Ana asked.

“Yui- She... Swallowed it...” McCree was mentally kicking himself as he said that. He has completely forgotten about it. However, with the look of sudden realisation on the others, he wasn’t the only one that had forgotten about it. In all fairness there were more important things to worry about then, but at the same time it has already been a full day since the wolf has eaten the USB.

Fareeha seemed to be more agitated. “So Yui still has the USB?”

“Uhhh... Yeah.” McCree said sheepishly.

Angela immediately opened up a new tab on her data pad, typing frantically. “Okay I need to do X-Ray on her immediately. And we may have to find some laxative to make her pass it. Hopefully it still stayed intact in her digestive track.”

Genji immediately got up. “Wait, wait Ang! Don’t worry I can get it out of her. You don’t need to do that.”

Fareeha stared at him as if he has just grown a second head. “Genji. She swallowed electronics! It could have made her very sick!”

“The USB could have important information and proof!” Winston added.

“Yeah that too.” Evidently that was not the first thing she had thought.

McCree hid his smirk behind his hands, ignoring her death glare from across the table. Ana and Angela both chuckled. It appeared that Fareeha’s love for all creatures great and small had not changed over the years. She had tried to hide it for a while, but everyone saw the joy in her eyes when her Anubis Jet Armour came in the mail.

“It’s okay. She does it all the time.” Genji said, trying to calm the others down.

It didn’t, it made it worse.

“What?!” Half the table stood up and shouted, almost made the poor cybrog fall off his chair.

“Um... Well Hanzo said she has a habit of swallowing and spitting out electronics.” Genji explained, trying to right himself. “She has been fine the whole time, and I’m sure she is fine now.”

“Also I doubt you children want to approach her right now.” Ana said calmly setting her cup down.

“Where is she anyway?” asked the Soldier.

“Underneath Hanzo’s bed in the medbay. Not moving and very aggressive.” Hana said, staring straight at McCree.

“What?” Soldier looked back and forth between Hana and McCree, but the young gamer offered no more explanation and started to fiddle with her empty cup.

McCree pulled his hat down. “Eh... she is probably right on that.” He wondered if there was any chance she would be civil, but the stump of his arm made him consider otherwise.

Soldier sighed and sank into his seat. “I don’t even know how to classify this.” He turned to Genji. “So you are sure that thing is absolutely dead?”

“Yup and it’s not gonna appear again.” He gave a thumb up, trying to ease everyone’s concern. It was not working.

“And you can get that USB out?” Angela asked.

“Just may need to sacrifice some peanut butter-”

“No.” Winston said flatly.

Genji made a pouting noise before turning to the other side of the table. “Rein’s steak?”

“No.” Reinhardt replied with equal flatness.

McCree waved his stump. “My left arm?”

Genji laughed. “Jesse I know you are joking but if you give her that I’m pretty sure she will crush it to smithereens. Without giving up the USB.”

“I’m sure she will give it up after some prompting.” Zenyatta said with a beeping Bastion on the side.

“Either way it will be on your desk.”

The soldier let out a sigh. “Good, now we can-”

“All go back to bed.” Ana said while loading up her dart pistol.

“Wha-”

No more words as Ana darted the soldier, hitting him right on his Adam’s apple. He slumped over the table with a thud while everyone else watched in confusion. She just stood up, putting away her dart gun and gather up her empty cup of tea.

“I’m tired. Everyone’s tired. So let’s all go back to bed until Genji gets that USB out of Yui.” She walked over and grabbed soldier by the leg. “Dismissed. Have a good day.”

With that she walked out dragging Soldier by the leg to presumably his bedroom. The others all just murmured among themselves and also began to leave.

McCree lagged behind, watching others leave. Genji didn’t move to try and get up. Instead he sank down on the chair heavily, steam released in small puffs through the ports on his body. He watched the cybrog put his head on the table, he really did sympathise with him. Rarely was Genji the one that they had to scrutinize and rarely did he actually have a secret to keep.

He got up and plopped himself down next to the other man. The action managed to startled the cybrog. Under normal circumstances he would be laughing gleefully about managing to sneak up on a ninja but he just didn’t have it in him to do that today.

“Hey how’s yer brother?” He asked, trying to be lighthearted.

Genji let out a small breath, taking his mask off just so he could pinch his nose. There were dark circles underneath his eyes as well. He must have been very worried.

“He’s fine. Ang said she managed to get all the poison out, but he did lose a lot of blood. There are some broken bones and something about his liver so it might be a while before he wakes up.” He mumbled. “Hey, listen. I’m sorry Yui bit you like that. She was just really agitated.”

“Yeah. It’s fine. I probably deserved it.” McCree thought back to when the archer first joined them.

The man had been quiet; barely saying more than one word in a sentence. Sometimes didn’t even move forward until Yui nudged him. At the time he’d thought the elder Shimada simply did not want to be here, that he only was because he was told to. That either Genji or by some other people who wanted inside intel on the new Overwatch had sent him. He had been in fact, certain it was the latter. McCree thought a good scare would be able to chase him off. Hanzo had turned up the next day to the first simulation training just the same, Yui accompanying him closely.

Later on he watched them both. Yui was often the friendlier of the two and always the one that started the initial interactions. Whether she jumped and circled them in happy circles or straight up tackled them to the floor to slobber their face, she always was affectionate to everyone. With exception to him but at this point he understood why.

Hanzo always lagged behind her, only speaking to stop her from going overboard. Answering question truthfully when it comes to his clan or the mission. Deflecting all questions if they were about himself or Yui; at most he would give a cryptic answer and leave the person asking with more questions. When it came to Genji, either he went absolutely silent or he would share small snippets of his playboy past – much to Genji’s embarrassment.

Social events were another thing the man utterly avoided. He only started to join in activities under Genji’s insistence, and later Hana’s. Even then, McCree saw him taking one look in the rec room before turning around and disappearing off to god-knows-where. Actually, he knew exactly where the archer went - the shooting range, that cliffside or his room. They were the only places on the base he went willingly. Almost like a hermit.

That were not the behaviour of a guy who wanted to betray them.

The more he thought about it, the more it felt like he had made a horrible mistake. One that he felt he needed to fix. Now though, he would probably need to wait for Yui to be less pissed with him. He didn’t have another spare arm for her to bite off.

“Hey will you be visiting him soon?” Genji asked, putting his face plate back on. “Ang says that he probably will wake today or tomorrow.”

McCree laughed nervously. “I dunno bud. I think Yui would murder me the moment I go anywhere close to the med bay.”

“Eh I’m sure I can lure her away for a few minutes.” Genji stood up and stretched, letting some of the metal creak underneath the carapace. “You were pretty hard on him during the mission.”

“Yeah... yeah I know. I do also have something else I need to tell your brother.” He said.

“Good! I will go try and take Yui out for a walk.”

“And get that USB out?” In all honesty McCree don’t think that it will happen within the week. He had no idea how a shapeshifter works but he figured coughing up a small electronic in such a flexible body will take some time. Whether she was willing or not.

Genji sighed. “Look I will try but I can see why she never listened to Hanzo.”

McCree couldn’t help but smirk. “Too human? Or...” He leaned forward slinging an arm around the cybrog’s shoulder to whisper in his ears. “Too otherworldly?”

If he could, McCree was sure Genji was sweating bullets right now underneath that armour.

“Maaaaybe.” Genji mumbled before shaking his arm off of his shoulder and bolted out of the room.

McCree chuckled. Both Shimadas are horrible liars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my honest opinion, I think McCree is too good at reading people and have never really realise that :P
> 
> Much love and thanks to LastSorceress for editing this
> 
> Here's our tumblrs!  
> My Tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com  
> LastSorceress’ Tumblr: https://elmartblog.tumblr.com


	20. A Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things needed to be said are said.

It still took a while before McCree managed to get to medbay. Mostly because he had to get to the kitchen first, he needed to get something into his stomach. The whole meeting was shorter than everyone expected, but he didn’t want the conversation to be interrupted by his stomach rumbling. Surprisingly Yui didn’t take his portion of food, however that did mean she would be waiting for him in the medbay if Genji couldn’t get her away. So he tried his best to settle down and finish his food, hoping that the ninja could somehow manage to keep the wolf away until he could go to check on Hanzo. He couldn’t spare any more limbs.

He took his time getting to the the medbay, it was his least favourite area, and it was whitewashed to the point that it was blinding – the flowers helped somewhat but not enough. Angela liked to lecture him every time he came along on his health, ranging from his arm, to the pudge that was growing and of course the smoking. All with good intentions but he couldn’t be bothered listening to that all the time.

Opening the door, he could already see that Hana had claimed one of the seats beside the bed. Game already in hand and she was blowing bubble gum. Hanzo was lying on the bed, breathing slowly and showing no signs of waking up. McCree didn’t feel right intruding on this and was about to leave when he felt something small thrown at his head.

“Oh no you don’t. I heard you.” Hana didn’t even look up from the game but pointed towards the seat across the bed.

McCree scratched his head, and noticed she wasn’t chewing on her gum anymore and there was nothing around her that she could have possibly thrown. “Did ya really just throw your gum at me?”

She looked up from the game, frowned and glared at the fallen gum on the floor. “It didn’t stick,” she huffed.

“Disappointed?”

“Very.” She stuck out her tongue at the gum before returning to the game.

McCree sighed and picked up the gum on the floor to throw it in the nearest bin – he didn’t need Angela’s nagging today – and sat himself down on the other side of the bed. For a long time there was no noise other than the music from Hana’s game console. He looked towards Hanzo. The archer laid on the bed quietly. He looked better than last night when he was pale and shivering on the stretcher as he was wheeled into base. Right now he had a little more colour to his skin and he was breathing a slow and even.

“Doc took him off respirator this morning.” Hana commented without looking up. “Poison’s still gonna take time to get out, just like that fever.”

Not knowing how to respond to that, McCree just nodded. In all honesty he wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do. The last few times he had been in the medbay he was the one in the bed, and Genji by his side teasing him. Further back in Blackwatch time, it was him by Genji’s bed side. Mostly just as a company so the guy wouldn’t feel so caged having only one limb and barely a working lung. He wondered just how similar the Shimada brothers were. Whether Hanzo was just as insufferable as his brother when confined to the bed.

“You hang with him a lot?” He asked. A little bit desperate to have a little more sounds in the quiet room and partially curious.

Hana looked up, staring at the cowboy for a long time. He felt a little bit uncomfortable under her scrutinizing gaze, but soon she shrugged and turned back to her game. “Yeah, he has literally zero chill but it was nice to play a game with him.”

McCree couldn’t help but frown. He could still remember how Genji had been. The screams were loud at first, but had quieted down as he run out of the energy and the pain become constant. His brother was the one that had put him into the state. So why? Why didn’t he play games with him? Why had he almost killed him instead?

Maybe he muttered all those thoughts out loud, since Hana looked up from her console again. Glaring at him with all the rage as the bunny from that ancient Monty Python film.

“What he did to Genji was absolutely awful, but it was also not my fucking business.” She snapped, her voice surprisingly quiet but it did nothing to dampen the anger behind each syllable. “It’s between the two brothers.I can only guess how messed up their upbringing was. So when I know jack shit about how their family worked I also literally have no right to judge them.”

A gentle shrill from her game broke her stride. She looked back to the game and blew a frustrated raspberry. “What he did is now in the past. Now I just want him to wake up so I can play games with him. His village is too big and overly complicated to maintain.” She grumbled while furiously clicking through the game.

McCree said nothing. What could he possibly say? He knew she was right. He had jumped to conclusions based on what Genji had said to him. That had not been the best time for the cybrog. So far everything Hanzo had done was to stay out of people’s way; there was no way he posed any danger to the rest of the Overwatch. He only got into things when someone dragged him in. Even then he rarely stayed and usually excused himself the moment it was polite to do so.

“You know I once asked him how he was so good at games.” Hana piped up suddenly. “Cause there was no way he didn’t play a lot with how many games the guy hordes. The first time I asked, he clamed up and I didn’t push further. Second time he just got up and ran.” McCree snorted. That definitely sounded like Hanzo. “Thankfully Yui was there at the third time and actually forced him to answer. Turns out he used to play Genji’s games all the time. Only at night because his father and the elders disapproved. And then he kept getting less time because he had so much homework and family business to do that he couldn’t get out of.”

He wrinkled his nose. “That is messed up.”

“I know right?” Hana chuckled and put her feet up on the bed, sinking down more comfortably on the seat.

McCree looked back at the archer. He was still sleeping peacefully, with a scowl on his face. Could he hear their conversation? It seemed unlikely, but he wondered just what kind of upbringing the man had gone through to that convinced him to murder his own kin. What had led him to isolate himself and become assassin for hire. All leading to him accepting Genji’s invitation to Overwatch.

The young gamer was not quite done talking though. “You are going to apologise to him when he wakes up.” She said. “I am hoping I am not the only one notice this, but you were god damn harsh on him during that mission. So be nice.”

He huffed lightly. “Yeah... Yeah I will.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart. Little lady.”

Hana snorted. The game let out a small victory fanfare.

 

* * *

 

After a while, Angela came in and chased both of them out because she needed to do check up on the archer. Hana stood her ground and refused to leave the chair, stating that until Yui come to take over she had promised not to leave, even clutching on the rails of the dividers when the doctor tried to drag her out of it. McCree wisely left the girls to battle and slipped away without notice. As he walked back to his room, he could hear the tell-tale signs of someone trying to sneak up on him. McCree rolled his eyes, Genji should have known he could never sneak up on him – not after the all the times in Blackwatch. He was contemplating whether or not to just humour him when suddenly the cyborg was already in front of him.

“Jesse McCree! Why in the world did you threaten my brother like that?” Genji nearly screamed at his face. Thank heavens they were in an empty hallway with no one around.

McCree blinked. “What?” He wanted to ask which time, but he felt that it might not be a good idea to provoke the cybrog in his current state. Thankfully he seemed to guess his question and provided an answer.

“On the day he arrived! You cornered him in the store room for it.”

The cowboy’s brain short-circuited. “Wait... He has never told you until now? It’s been months!” McCree honestly assumed that the archer would have at least asked his brother why he had a gun pointed at his face so soon after landing. Apparently not...

“You expected him to?” Genji sounded surprised, and began to pace in a circle. “Wait, okay - rewind why did you even threaten him in the first place?”

That. McCree had to scoff. “Genji you were literally in every sort of pain imaginable back then. You honestly believed I would act any differently?”

The cybrog lifted up a finger wanting to say something. Seconds later the finger slowly lowered and he could see the green visor light narrow and blink a few more times. Finally Genji let it drop. “Yeeeah okay. Maybe I didn’t paint him in the best light back in the day. But I did tell you and everyone else to go easy on him.”

That he had. That night Genji had hosted a meeting for all overwatch agents that answered the recall – all the old guards that is – telling them how he had invited his brother to overwatch. Of course it was immediately meet by protest from Angela who very _kindly_ reminded everyone that Hanzo was the one that almost killed him. It took most of an hour for all the discussion to die down. Then Genji had begged everyone not to antagonise his brother should he accept the offer. He wanted his older brother back, not to drive him away again.

Thankfully for all sides, Hanzo seemed to be much more resilient than Genji gave him credit for. Staying even after all the cold shoulders and verbal attacks that came from everyone, particularly him... Okay, mostly him.

McCree let out a breath. “Look pardner I don’t think you need to worry too much about that no more. Hana already give me an earful on that.”

“Oh... So you’ll apologise? And maybe treat him normally?”

“I promised her I would apologize and I will do it.” He scratched the back of his head. “I’ll admit I may have gone overboard during that mission.” Usually he made sure he wouldn’t make a big scene of it. If there was one thing Jack and Reyes managed to teach him it was that any public argument or sniping would never end well, and the quickest way to make a long term enemy. Thus he generally kept his snark and venom muted unless it was in private. Now while he hated Hanzo at that time he didn’t exactly want to add another assassin to his long list of enemies.

“Kinda surprised he didn’t tell you about it straight away.”

“Eh. That’s what he was always like. Asking for help was probably equivalent to swallowing a ball of needles. I actually ended up having to ask.” The cybrog hummed, turning away from him. “I was always wondering why Yui hated you so much and after she bit off your arm I had to ask her-errrrm him. Then Hanzo accidentally let it slip what you did.”

McCree was a little glad Genji couldn’t see his smirk and was not feeling particularly inclined to push that small slip up. If he really had just learnt this, Hanzo would have had to be awake and he knew he wasn’t. Most likely it was Yui that told him what had happened. He was surprised that Hanzo hadn’t told anyone about it. Yui, he suspected wanted to tell someone but since she was posing as a wolf she probably had a limited number of people to choose from. It made him wonder why. He knew that if he was in the archer’s position he would have asked around to find out who the person that had threatened him was, or even gotten more background info to see who he was dealing with. Yet Hanzo had done none of that. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even tried and defend himself.

He would have to think more on that later. For now it was safe to assume that the only one on base that know of Yui’s true nature were the Shimada brothers, Ana, Athena and him. Come to think of it... Why had Ana kept Yui’s secret?

The moment he thought of the question, the answer came right after. Ana probably thought it would be funny and had been watching quietly on the sideline for a long while. She always had been a little schemer after all, and Fareeha was her daughter. That snake in the boot prank she pulled was still probably in the archive somewhere.

Speaking of which...

“By the way. Any luck on getting Yui to cough that up?”

Genji tossed up the black driver in the air, playing around with it. “A little gross but she let me get it out of her. I am just going to hold on to it for a day or two under some electronic locks. I want to drag on this break a little longer.”

McCree laughed. “Bless ya bud. Jack would hate you though.”

“Hey look, I saw how many people were dead on the table and I think whatever is on here might need people’s full attention.” He stopped tossing the USB and sighed. “And fuck Jack.”

“Ha! That’s Gabe’s job tho.”

“Yeah I know... Ahhh... I miss them...” Genji said quietly.

McCree can’t help but echo the tone. “Yeah... Me too...”

Jack just didn’t seem like Jack when Gabe wasn’t with him. He looked older; felt older. Like a worn soldier rather than the glittering commander of Overwatch. They never managed to find Gabriel Reyes in the Switzerland base - not even a body to identify. He had just vanished like a smoke. Thus now Jack hid his face behind a red visor and mask, rarely taking them off even on base. He even refused to answer to his name, choosing to go by Soldier.

Briefly he wondered what the Blackwatch commander would have thought of his husband’s behaviour. Probably would have put him in a headlock yelling about how he wasn’t a sixteen year old farmer boy anymore while Jack yelled back that he was the drama queen. Then he thought about what the Blackwatch commander would have said about _his_ actions. Purposefully threatening an assassin over and over again for months. Probably would have told him that he was a reckless idiot and he wouldn’t scrape him off the floor if the archer decided to turn on all of them.

He had his fingers crossed that Hanzo is not thinking about that.

 

* * *

 

The next day, he visited medbay first thing after breakfast. To his surprise the archer was already awake and by some miracle - Yui was not around. In all honesty, McCree just wanted to suss out who was in the medbay and then from there decide whether he needed to double back to the kitchen to find a peace offering or just go straight in. Since the latter was now the reality he wasn’t quite sure what to do here. Still there was nothing else for it other than to take a deep breath and go in.

Hanzo was just reading from a data pad when he walked in. Still a little pale with an IV attach to his arm, but looking much better. When Hanzo looked up to see cowboy at the doorway, he seemed to be surprised. He immediately sat up straighter and put the data pad aside. Staring at him wide eyed for long enough that it was making McCree nervous.

“Howdy. Shimada-san.” He tried to be as light as possible, finally using the honorifics Genji had taught him. Genji had explained the reason for the extra words at the end of a name and he happily used it to any Japanese agents or visitors that came through the base. They came in handy when he visited Japan on mission or during his time on the run, and he still used them to help those around him feel more comfortable. It was now that he realised he hasn’t used it once for Hanzo since the man landed at watchpoint.

It seemed as though the archer had noticed, judging by the small rise of his eyebrow that quickly vanished to neutrality. “Good morning, McCree.”

“Feelin’ better?”

“Yes, once Yui has retrieved my legs from my room I can leave the med bay.” There was a slight relieved smile there that seemed to disappear a bit too soon. “Where is your arm?”

“Eh...” He thought about telling the truth, but he figured it was unimportant right now. He didn’t need to waste time on something he probably deserved. Besides, Yui would undoubtably brag about it to Hanzo later so there was really no point in telling him right now. “It needed repairs.” Hanzo looked like he was about to argue about it so he quickly rushed the next part out. “Look... Shimada-san... I just wanna apologise for how I have been treating ya. It was rude and uncalled for and just...” He sighed. “It wasn’t fair. I’m sorry.”

Hanzo stared at him for a long time, or maybe it wasn’t as long as it felt. McCree actually started to hope that the other man would finally say something, so that he wouldn’t have to try and read his face to get an idea of what the guy was thinking.

When he finally did say something, it was far from what McCree expected. “It... It’s fine. It was understandable.”

This made him frown. “No. No it wasn’t. I was been unfairly harsh most of the time and... well... even after Genji had told everyone to go easy...”

“It is unnecessary. If it is Genji’s wishes for me to be here I will stay. It doesn’t matter what happens to me.” Hanzo said it as if it was a matter of fact.

There was something profoundly wrong with that statement but before he could ask on its meaning, he could hear sharp barking.

Immediately he froze and thought of how to best get out. Unfortunately there was only one entrance into the medbay and there was now loud scrabbling noise on the other side of it. He really didn’t want to know how mad Yui was at him right now or what she would do to him once she was allowed into the room.

“Yui! Cease this behaviour!” Hanzo yelled, he seemed to be very annoyed.

The scrabbling stopped, but there were low growls coming from the other side of the door. Soon the door chimed softly as Athena opened it, allowing the wolf in. Her hackles were clearly raised and she didn’t hesitate to immediately put herself between the two men. She snarled viciously at the cowboy, but Hanzo quickly grasped her scruff firmly.

“Yui. Just what happened?” He asked as he attempted to haul the wolf back. Trying to somewhat ensure she wouldn’t lunge at the cowboy. She pointedly ignored him and glared at McCree, teeth bared and glistening.

“Hey Yui... I uhh...” McCree tried to find the words quickly. However he found it hard to think with Yui staring him down. Her eyes were literally on fire. Flickers of golden flame blaze around them, and he wasn’t sure what that meant but he hoped she wasn’t thinking of attacking him. He still hadn’t got the arm back from Torbjorn. Despite the natural instinct that told him to just run and escape danger, he took in a deep breath and steeled himself. “Look I... I just apologised to Shimada-san here... and I uhh... should also apologise to you. ’M sorry that I hurt your friend like that. I want uhhh...” He looked towards Hanzo. “I want to start over.”

Yui narrowed her eyes at him. He met her gaze, trying to ignore the siren that was sounding in the back of his mind. That screamed at him to either back away from the creature or pull out his gun. Soon the fire in her eyes seemed to flicker and die, and she huffed and laid down on the bed.

Hanzo absentmindedly scratched her head then he asked, “What brought you to apologise? It was reasonable in your position. I am a stranger.” He grimaced. “I committed fratricide...”

Yui immediately jumped up and growled at that statement. Hanzo just stopped with the head scratching, eyes already staring into the distance.

“Okay first off. Genji still here, so don’t talk like he is dead yeah?” That annoyed him a tad but he pushed it down for now. It was not a good time to parse his words. Besides his purpose was to apologise for now, if he needed to knock some sense into the archer for a good reason he could probably do it later. Preferably away from his overprotective guardian, even if she seemed to have the same idea. Yui glared at Hanzo, and he sheepishly looked away.

“Also thinking about it...” McCree scratched the back of his head. He had to thank the two people that had whacked the truth of it over his head. Who knows how long he would have continued to be this much of an ass without it... “I don’t know how your family life is or what you have gone through. Shouldn’t have jumped into conclusions. And I shouldn’t have treated you this shitty.”

He looked towards Yui, she was still growling at him quietly, but the dangerous gaze was more... muted. After a moment she snorted and laid back down. McCree reached out thinking of it, offering to scratch her neck as a peace offering, but withdrew his hand. She may have just tolerated him but he probably shouldn’t push his luck. Besides, it felt weird scratching the neck of something that could turn human on a whim.

Hanzo chuckled on the side. “I should warn you, Yui does hold grudges for a long period of time.”

Crap. McCree swallowed, staring at the wolf. The feeling of a sparkling coupler was still fresh in his mind. “No hope for a clean slate?”

“I’m afraid not. At least not within the year.”

Yui barked and growled, but made no other movement on the bed. He figured he deserved the hostility. At the very least she didn’t seemed to plan any more attacks on him - thankfully.

“So... Since we are gonna start this again from the beginning.” McCree cleared his throat and stuck out his hand. “Howdy name’s Jesse McCree. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Hanzo smiled. McCree thought it was a trick of light that time, but he found the archer’s small smile rather dazzling. He took his hand in a firm shake. “Hanzo Shimada. You do not need to use honorifics with me.”

On one side Yui flopped down with her ears back. She stared at the two men before snorting and curling up on the foot of the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> September has done a wonderful job in kicking my ass and probably for October as well because I decide to take on Inktober  
> o|-<
> 
> Don't worry I am currently writing on chapter 23 and its hitting 10k words :U
> 
> Much love and thanks to LastSorceress for going through this chapter <3


	21. Craving for the Return of Routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is time to rewind a few hours and shift perspective.

Genji may have promised to get Yui out of the medbay but he hadn’t thought that far ahead on how. He stared at her lying underneath Hanzo’s bed. Unmoving and staring right back at him in challenge, he didn’t even need Soba to tell him that she would not move unless given a very good reason to.

“Yui please.” He hissed towards the wolf but Yui just shook her head.

“No. I can cough it out after Hanzo wakes up. Seventy-six can wait a few days, it will not kill him.” She snarled at him, sinking even further down on the metal bars. It was not comfortable but also ensured that she could not be removed without pulling the bed roughly. “Also you don’t want to go to the meeting anyway; I know you sleep through plenty of them.”

Genji winced, he honestly had thought that only his master would notice if he was asleep behind his visor. He needed to be more careful in hiding his disinterest. However right now he needed to think of a better excuse or threat. “Okay... Don’t make me get Reinhardt. I know he is big and strong enough to haul you out from under there.”

“It’s Reinhardt’s turn to cook breakfast, I doubt you can stop a group of hungry people.”

The cybrog groaned and buried his face in his hand. He had never dealt with anyone this unreasonable except for Hanzo. Maybe this was why the two of them hit it off so well. It was a surreal experience to learn the wolf that your brother hung out with was actually an ancient shape-shifting being. Who also was stubborn enough that they didn’t want to come out from underneath the hospital bed Hanzo was asleep on top, peacefully unaware of the fighting around him. Yui rolled her eyes at his reaction.

“Genji I wasn’t born yesterday I know your lies-” Yui clammed up suddenly and Genji had learned it was a pretty good indication that someone was coming into hearing range.

Hana walked in a moment later, a bag of chips in one hand, her gaming bag in the other and bright pink bubble gum in her mouth. How she had managed to gather all of it so soon after the meeting when the room and kitchen were so far apart, was a mystery. She looked more awake now than before. Hana dropped everything at the end of the bed and went to pet Yui, earning her some friendly licks and a wagging tail.

“Still trying?” she asked while nonchalantly pulling up a nearby chair and settling herself there.

Genji sighed and banged his head lightly on the bed rails. “I take back all I ever said about Hanzo sucking when it comes to dealing with animals. Yui is just a stubborn bitch.”

Yui huffed with laughter underneath the bed. Hana tried her best to hide her snicker but didn’t do a very good job of it. Even his glaring did not make either one stop. Though he would probably have to take off his face plate to have made an effect.

“You here to mock me or help me?” he asked.

“More former than latter.” Hana replied with a cheeky grin.

Genji groaned. “Look I may not need the USB right away but I want to take her out and not... you know... hover over him, making everyone too nervous to visit.”

“To be fair how many people you expected to come? The others look like they were about to kneel over if it wasn’t for Ana saving our ass.”

“You know what I mean.”

She rolled her eyes before moving herself down on to the floor. “Hey Yui?” There was no response so she laid herself flatter on the ground.  “Yuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~” Hana did her best to shimmy herself underneath the bed. Yui growled lightly and tried to shuffle away. There was not much room left underneath the bed, and it was something the girl was taking advantage of as she buried her face in the wolf’s mane.

“Come on just indulge the ninja for once. I can watch over Hanzo.” She cooed and scratched the wolf. Genji could see the wolf’s resolve cracking as Hana scratched her neck. “Don’t worry I’m planning to stay here the whole day.”

Yui let out a low whine, licking the young girl’s face. Hana just nuzzled in further. “We will be here when you get back. Now out you get.” She shoved as hard as she could to get the wolf out, but only succeeded in pushing herself out from underneath the bed. Yui rolled her eyes before finally crawling out herself.

Genji sat on the side dumbfounded. “How come you listen to her and not me?!” But all he got was both girls sticking their tongues out at him.

Yui stretched out a little before going to the door scratching at it - there were already many scratch marks on the door - and waited for the cybrog to follow.

 

* * *

 

Genji flopped down on the grassy floor as Yui landed behind him. It was a cliff that overlooked the sea and rather enclosed within a small patch of forest.

“Why?” he whined.

“Why what?” Yui yawned and stretched the rest of her body, letting her flesh stretch like putty.

Genji sat up. “Why did you lead me through a bloody obstacle course?!”

He had wondered where Hanzo would hang out when he couldn’t find him on base. Genji had not expected it to be across the rocky shores and up a sheer cliff face The cliff face itself was dangerous with waves making every foot hold slippery; constantly threatening to engulf him and drag him out to sea. Even when he had been in his moody Blackwatch days, the furthest he had retreated from others was up a light tower that had no staircase and which he could climb all the way up fairly quickly.

Yui didn’t seem to see the problem. She just rolled her eyes and patted his shoulder. “It’s several rocks on the shore and one cliff face. There is no need to be dramatic.”

“THERE IS A WALKWAY RIGHT THERE!” He pointed towards the dense woods. Sure there was no actual pathway, but it was something that could be walked on.

“But that would not be as much fun.” Yui said with quiet joy in her tone that made Genji’s blood boil a little.

“Then why not that stupid phone trick? We could have stayed on base!”

That made Yui quiet. She stared into the distance and seemed to be in deep thought. Finally she said, “in all honesty I had forgotten that was an option.”

Genji dropped down on the ground again, not even trying to hide his frustrated groan. Yui didn’t think twice before lying on top of him.

“Well I guess I could thank you for the exercise. I was getting a little cramped underneath the bed.” She chuckled shifting a little as he tried to sit up – and stopping him doing so. Genji sighed. He gave up and scratched the back of her neck. She rumbled in appreciation. It felt so strange how realistic her body felt. Fur and flesh felt as exactly as it should. Despite that, just yesterday she had been more or less a large goop monster with scales, or had it been hide? He wasn’t quite sure. During battle he was more concerned in not dying. The whole thing had him curious.

“What else could you turn into?” He asked.

“Anything,” she clambered off. Her body shifted as she moved, turning briefly into a cat. Then as if for show she flew up as a crow before diving down the cliff and clambering back up the side as a weird hybrid of lizard and deer. “As long as I can picture it I can change into it. Though I do prefer something that I have actually seen before.”

“Yeah, I figure that beast isn’t something real.”

Yui shrugged. Carefully she got herself all back on the cliff; returning to her wolf form. “Maybe it is. I don’t hide this but I lived for a very, very long time and my memory gets muddled.”

Genji stared.  “What? Like amnesia?”

She shook her head, looking away. “Not really... More like I’m not always able to pin what event happened when. Or tell a memory from a vivid ni- dream.” She sighed, lying down on the grass. “Regardless I don’t often change into a monster like that... unless the situation calls for it.”

“Like Hanzo getting hurt?”

Yui grimaced, looking away again. “Yeah... Haven’t lost it like that for quite some time.”

He frowned. “Does that happen-”

“Whenever he gets hurt? Hell no. I get angry but I’ve never lost it. Not to mention Hanzo himself could strangle someone to death with his broken bow while he has one leg gone and a broken rib.” Genji was sure his expression was well-hidden behind his visor but by Yui’s annoyed expression, something must have slipped. “And yes he actually did that, but that’s a story for him to tell. I will correct it if he tries to play himself down but he needs to start the damn thing.”

“Alright... So why did you bite McCree?” Yui huffed but Genji was not to be deterred this time. “Yeah I noticed that you really, _really_ hate him. And I know he really isn’t like his usual friendly self around Hanzo, but I didn’t expect you to bite him.”

“Well I didn’t expect him to put a gun to Hanzo’s head hours after landing.” She snarled.

Genji’s thoughts screeched to a stop. “What?”

Yui seemed to be rather frustrated with his reaction. “Huh. I thought I told Hanzo he needed to tell at least you about that. If he was so unwilling to say everything else.”

“I- Hmmmph.” He let out a breath. “When did this happen?”

“On the day he arrived. I was with him wandering around the base. Out of nowhere came the cowboy and he had his gun at Hanzo’s head. Looks like the man cares for you a whole lot.” Yui said.

“Yeah he’s my best friend. I had a small hope that he would be a friend to Hanzo as well.”

Yui snorted. “Uh huh... You expected a guy who heard only stories – bad stories that involved hurting _you_ , mind – to be friendly with him?” Genji scratched the back of his head. He had never actually thought beyond immersing Hanzo in a group of supportive and good people rather than the elders back home, he had thought it would do him good. Some people like Lucio were just an incredible ball of energy and sunshine that could easily brighten anyone’s mood, people like that. It was just the small hope that Overwatch would be a good change just as Blackwatch and the Shimbali monks were.

At least it seemed Yui was not blaming him. She breathed out through her nose and nudged her snout into his face. “Look I understand where he is coming from but that does not mean I won’t attack him if he even thinks about throwing another barb at Hanzo.”

“I... I will have a talk with him.” Genji patted Yui’s head just like Hanzo did when she did something she shouldn’t. “But you also stop antagonising him.”

He should have realised that he wasn’t Hanzo and Yui didn’t fake flinching. She just stared at him unamused and flatly said, “No.”

“Come on Yui I don’t want to fight you like that again. That was freaky!”

“I only blacked out and went on a rampage for ten minutes,” she snapped back.

“That is definitely not true, you wiped the whole group out.”

“They deserved it.” She snarled. “By the way, have you guys found the sniper yet?”

“Oh Widowmaker? No. Apparently Winston has no footage. He only has some bits at the start of the event and during the gunshots.”

“No footage?” Yui asked, standing up and begining to pace.

Genji shook his head. “None. Nadda.”

“Track where I was then. I was following her before I got interrupted by that moron.”

He rolled his eyes. “Are you ever going to let this go?”

“ _Never_.” Yui hissed, her fur raised on end.

“Kinda makes me wonder how come there were no footage of you as well. You know when you turned into a multi-limbed monstrosity and started to attack me?”

Yui sat back down. “One, it is a side-effect of my ability. I can jam a lot of signals depending on which form I take on. Secondly... give me a break it’s hard to tell what I am chomping on when all I want is for Hanzo to be safe.”

“But you didn’t attack Chi... With that speed you have you would have attacked them.”

“Chiharu were both with Hanzo. When I go berserk I at still recognise who I am trying to protect.” She rolled her head back a bit. “I will have to thank them a little later, it has been a while since I lost it that far.” She snorted. “I don’t even remember what happened last time.”

“Well we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Not only because Yui was hard to fight, or that any normal person would probably end up as a red smear on the ground. Now it was because he knew who she was now and he really don’t want to hurt her. Even if it meant unable to save the rest of the city.

Yui laughed and nuzzled into his face. “Then make sure you boys keep yourself safe okay?”

Genji smiled. “Alright.” He nuzzled back at her. It was hard not to be affectionate with her, especially when she was in the form of a fluffy animal. It was no wonder no one on base minded her flopping her weight down on top of them to beg for scratches. It was only weird how quickly she could make one forget that she could potentially change into a person or something similarly shaped to that. Was it possible that she had actually been human at one point?

“Now you still want the USB?” Yui asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Kinda yeah. I mean I won’t be giving it to Soldier any time soon.” Knowing the old commander, he would immediately pull everyone into a meeting the moment he showed up with the drive. Ana probably could keep him down for a few hours depending on how many of those sleep darts she willing to use on him.

“Good because I do not think anyone has the energy for this right now.” Yui said as she shifted back to a more human appearance. It was disturbing to watch as she shoved her clawed hand into herself, watching the flesh part for her hand as she rummage around her insides. There were odd tinkling noises in there, and she pulled out some coins in various currency, some small plastic figurines, keys and a familiar phone. Finally she dragged out the small black USB and tossed it towards Genji. Meanwhile a second set of arms busied themselves shoving all the other stuff back into her body.

Genji didn’t move as the USB hit his face. “Ewww.” He gingerly took the drive and wiped off whatever that was coating it. Saliva, he hoped.

“Oh don’t be a baby.” She snickered before getting back on two feet and stretched. “Alright I am guessing it’s almost time for the check-up and Hana probably is going to be throwing a fit in the infirmary.”

“Weren’t you throwing a fit?” He asked, wishing that his face plate allowed him to show more emotions. He needed the raised eyebrow for this situation.

Yui blew him a raspberry. “An entirely silent one. But I meant it, both of you boys take better care of yourself. Especially if you don’t want to see me lose it.” With that she kissed him on the forehead before shifting fully into a wolf and trotting along the forest path back to base.

Genji stood there for a moment touching the place where she kissed him, before following after her back to the med bay.

 

* * *

 

Hanzo woke in the middle of the night. Unlike last few times where he was woken by nightmares and to be promptly greeted with a giant wolf carrying a water bottle in her jaws. This time he was greeted by pain and Yui as a human sitting on the rail beside the bed. Mostly human at least, with a proper face and fingered hands, her lower body was still a wolf, her pointy ears barely hidden in her mess of hair. She didn’t seem to notice him waking, she just stared out the window at the stars.

He turned his head to the other side and saw Genji. He was sleeping on his side, mask off on the nightstand snoring lightly. Gently he nudged his little brother a little, but his only response was a grumble as he settled himself more on the mattress rather than the railing. Hanzo couldn’t help but smile, the motion caused a slight pain across his chest that caused him to wince; drawing Yui’s attention.

“<Hey. How are you feeling?>” She said in Japanese, clambering over. Careful to keep from jostling the mattress or putting any weight on him.

Hanzo furrowed his brows. He knew Yui had already managed to convince Athena to overlook her, however Genji was just sleeping next to him, and the doctor could come at any minute. Yet here she was in a form that was simply not natural. “<Should you be->”

“<Genji found out.>” She said softly. Gently she placed the back of her hand on his forehead, parting the loose hair that had fallen over his face. “<And an hour ago Ana sleep darted Angela so she would go to sleep. How are you feeling?>”

“<Numb... and hazy...>” His mouth was also dry, and his stomach growled with hunger. That was to be expected and Yui seemed to pick up on it. She got up to grab the water bottle at the nightstand while he gingerly pushed himself up into a sitting position. There was still mild pain where the bullet hit him, but it wasn’t as bad as he had imagined.

“<Yeah the doctor did use some real strong pain killer.>” She handed the bottle over, but Hanzo could feel her watching like a hawk for any signs of pain. He said nothing, just waving her off and taking some small sips of water. It was minor pain right now and there was no sign of anything else wrong. Yui blew her breath out of her nose. “<I think the lesson here is unless the enemy is torn to shreds by me, don’t ever turn your back on them.>”

Hanzo snorted. It was true that turning his back on his target was unwise, but he knew he hit a vital artery and that any movement would have caused pain and rapid bleeding. Whoever this sniper was, they probably were not quite human. He paused, a realisation dawning on him. If the other sniper had been alive to take him out, she would also have been free to attack his team mates. He grasped the side of the bed and was prepared to haul himself off to check when Yui grasped his shoulder and pushed him back. Concern was evident in her glowing eyes, but Hanzo was more worried. “<Was everyone else okay? Did the mission fail?>” he asked.

“<You were the only one that got hurt. And don’t worry, the monks are also safe, the only failure is probably Vishkar saving their porcelain face.>” Yui said gently, and pushing him back. Hanzo stared to see if she was hiding anything. She wasn’t, she had never have hidden any truth from him. He sighed with relief and it made Yui chuckle.

“<Go back to sleep. There are still a few hours before sunrise.>” She said.

He nodded, there was no point for him to get up at the moment, might as well shut his eyes for few more hours. Genji let out a loud snore. It couldn’t be too comfortable sleeping slouched over a chair with his head on the mattress. Actually it was a little bit surprising how flexible Genji still was after all the cybernation. One would think having too much metal parts would restrict your movement. “<Could you... Get Genji back into his room?>” he asked.

“<Of course.>” Yui said with no hesitation. She even shifted into her larger form, easily picking up the cybrog as if he was a child. To their surprise, Genji immediately grabbed onto the railing of the bed, almost hauling the bed with him.

“<Noooo.... I want to stay with anija...>” he whined. There was an awful sound of metal being crushed, and Yui laughed softly.

“<You can play with him in the morning. It’s time for bed,>” she said. Gently she pried his fingers off of the bars. It was a slow process requiring her second set of arm to pry each finger off and keep them from returning back to the railing. Eventually it was done and instead the ninja grasped her fur. She looked pained, but said nothing.

Athena’s voice gently chimed above them. “I have a route to Agent Genji’s room that will not alert anyone else.” The door slid open silently, showing the dark empty hallway.

“Thank you Athena.” She shifted Genji a bit so she had a better hold on him and let him quietly snore away on her shoulder. Yui paused at the door though. “Hanzo I swear you better be asleep by the time I come back. Or I will call for Ana to do your check-ups in the morning.”

Hanzo snorted and settle back into the pillow. He didn’t fight the sleep that washed over him. There was no danger here, his brother was safe, his team mates were all safe. He was safe.

 

* * *

 

Yui came back quickly after prying the sleepy cybrog off of her so he would settle in bed. He wouldn’t be too happy with her in the morning but it would be much better if he didn’t wake with a crick in his neck. If Genji still had complaints she figured she could always show him the video of him whining like a child. When she returned Hanzo was asleep to her great relief. It took a while to recover from the fever the poison had set in but now everything was on the mend.

She kissed his forehead and then returned to her normal wolf form. It was late, and she was sleepy She would rather not scare the doctor first thing in the morning. She curled up at the foot of the bed, closing her eyes and willed her rampant thoughts to calm.

 

* * *

 

Hanzo woke few hours later in the morning. Hana had sat where Genji was last night, feet propped up on the railing where there was a distinct dent and his DS – the one she gifted to him so they could play co-op games – was in her hand  which he assumed meant she was playing his save file. Yui was at the end of the bed, curled up quietly with her eyes closed. The moment he shifted on the bed she looked up, barking and jumping up on bed. No doubt to do everything to draw Hana out of her game.

Hana looked up and instantly she smiled wide. “Ohaiyo,” she said cheerfully, snapping the game shut.

“Joh-eun achim,” he replied. Gingerly he pushed himself up to a proper sitting position. He felt a lot better since last night; at least less groggy and parched.

“You have officially been asleep for two days.” She said.

Hanzo blinked. “That long?” He expected to be out for a while for blood loss, but not for that long. Wiping his eyes he could already feel the crusties that had accumulated. As soon as the doctor give him the all clear he want to get into a shower, preferably as soon as possible.

Hana just giggled and poke his cheek. “Not long enough if you ask me. Sooner or later I am putting eyeshadow on you to match the bags under your eyes.”

“In that case I demand you use your MAC set.” He swatted her hands away with a small smile, completely unfazed at the middle finger Hana threw his way.

“You want me to call for Doc? Fareeha threw her over her shoulder and made off with her an hour ago. Probably for breakfast.”

He carefully shifted around his body, patting the bandages and flexing his muscles to see what else hurt. So far just the chest area ached, where the bullet hit and what he assumed to be a broken or cracked rib. Basically minor pains. “I don’t think so.”

Yui glared at him, obviously unconvinced or  she had already looked at his chart so she know the extent of his injuries. Even Hana stared at him for a very long time trying to see if he was lying. Whatever argument that would have come up was interrupted by the loud growling of the dragon’s stomach. The Korean girl was merciless with her laughter.

“Sounds like what you need is breakfast.” Her stomach interrupted with a much louder growl. “Okay. Me tool.” She said sheepishly. Yui let out a weird hyena laugh. Hanzo shook his head and was prepared to get off the bed when he noticed a problem. His prosthetics were not with him. They were not even at the side of the bed. They were most likely in his room for safe keeping, since Yui was fully aware how he didn’t like strangers handling his legs. Not even Torbjorn had a chance to look at them.

Then there was the IV drip. He was reminded by the small tug on his arm when he moved towards the edge of the bed. He knew it was something he really shouldn’t take out if he didn’t need to. Yui rolled her eyes before nudging at him to get back into bed. Hanzo let out a heavy breath, he was admittedly hungry, but didn’t want whatever ward food was on hand. He just wanted to get up and move instead of being confined to a bed like an invalid.

Hana noticed the problem. “Want me to bring something back?” she asked.

Hanzo forced down the knee jerk reaction of arguing. Of wanting to insist he could do this by himself, that he was not weak. This was not like before; not like with the clan. It was just Hana offering a helping hand and there was absolutely no shame in taking it. “Please.” He said quietly.

She nodded and whistled at the wolf. “Come on Yui. You also need some food.”

Yui barked and jumped off the bed, following her all the way to the door, however she lingered there for a moment, looking around to ensure no one was within hearing range before turning back to Hanzo. “Natto, egg and rice?” she whispered. Smiling when Hanzo nodded and she trotted off after the girl.

Hanzo sighed and shifted himself into a more comfortable position on the bed. He also picked up the data pad on the nightstand. It was his private one, most likely placed there by Yui last night. He noted the time on the screen, and decided that it might be awhile before they would come back, might as well take that time to catch up on any news that he missed over the last few days. There was no way to access mission data on this tablet, but he could catch up to them a little later.

There was a lot of news coverage of the mysterious monster that attacked Oasis. He had a fair idea that it was Yui. Although he felt that they might have exaggerated the carnage for the sake of their viewers. She had changed her shape to something big and grotesque before. She had used as a fear tactic on some of his harder assassination marks.

Suddenly the door opened, and he tensed out of habit. He was further surprised to see McCree standing at the doorway. He was the last person Hanzo expected to visit, he had doubted that McCree would even bother. It was hard not to stare. From his gentle tanned skin to the warm smile that was always directed to the others. It concerned him that his mechanical arm was missing. He wondered if Yui had lied and McCree had gotten hurt because of his incompetence. However when he finally asked, the answer from the cowboy was a blatant dodging of the question. He didn’t get any opportunity to push the subject before McCree shocked him silent.

McCree apologised for his behaviour. Actions which were all reasonable for someone who had their best friend killed. He apologised to him. To _him_. A man who would kill his little brother and was too pathetic to face the consequences or the judgement. On the run for years in an attempt to redeem himself and who had made little to no progress.

Hanzo was at a lost for words. All he could do was stare and wonder why Mccree had such a drastic change of heart. He was too afraid to ask, and he was rapidly running out of time to formulate proper answer that didn’t made him sound like a fool. Then Yui returned. Angry and frantic, she almost scratched through the door to get in. He could see the fear in McCree’s eyes. That hadn’t there before when Yui had been outright hostile with him. Now as she burst through the door to plant herself between him and the cowboy, he looked like he wanted to take a step back. Hanzo had to grab her just to make sure she wouldn’t actually follow through her barks. Her anger was literally spilling out from her eyes in flames.

He wasn’t sure how anyone could fail to notice the unearthly flames that practically burst out of Yui’s eyes. Maybe they could only be seen by those with a certain spiritual aptitude. For now, it was not important.

More importantly was the fact that McCree also apologised to Yui. Hanzo wondered if the cowboy had somehow figured out her secret, he must have - otherwise he wouldn’t do this, and right now Yui was far too upset with him to reveal the truth willingly.

The explanation McCree gave didn’t help at all. He didn’t believe it. What’s more he asked for a retry; another introduction. Every fibre of his being screamed at him that it was a trap; that he would immediately get hurt should he carelessly trust a man that was ready to point a gun at his head. Yet, he still felt like he had to take that chance. Even if everything said that it was a foolish decision.

Yui soon calmed down and settle at the end of the bed. She said nothing about his choices but he could feel her disapproval clearly.

 

* * *

 

Hana arrived soon after with an arm full of food that she had scavenged from the kitchen before it was all eaten. She’d managed to steal a bucket of rice, a plate of bacon and toast, and a packet of natto while the kitchen was full, and it was a feat that Hanzo was both proud and terrified of. If she went through the same training he and Genji had gone through when they were young, then none of those omnics had stood a chance against this girl, with or without her MEKA.

Hana raised an eyebrow at the sight of the cowboy in the room, but she said nothing. Finding the cleanest looking surface to lay all the food stuff on, then promptly settling herself on the end of the bed. Or mostly on Yui as the bed was getting awfully cramped with the amount of people present. Even Hanzo had to scoot further back on bed to allow more room for the two.

The room felt awkward. McCree was clearly uncomfortable and Yui wasn’t helping with her steady unblinking glare. Hana was a god-send as she immediately noticed the tension and came to the rescue; starting a conversation about the recent missions. Mostly others, not mentioning at all what happened in Oasis. They spoke about having contact with Satya Vaswani, a Vishkar architect who wished to leave the organisation discreetly. So far they had managed to get her out of India and just needed passport transfer - and to convince Lucio to not be openly hostile to the people who had killed his father. They also talked about how Bridgette ran into some trouble with a pair of very determined Junkers that had tried to raid her trailer for parts.

“Good thing none of the stuff was actually stolen.”

“Good thing we decided to pick up the truck with her. Seriously peeps there will take the whole truck apart for anything useable.”

“Jus’ how long did you get stranded in the outback?”

“Ehhhhh... A year? Australia and Korea have some issues going on and it prevented them from them picking me up. Dae-hyun was arguing with both governments for month. Thank goodness they still have decent internet in Junkertown so I could stream. It was heavily firewalled but two Junkers were good enough to help me set up a satellite so I could access my own 8G.”

“That’s mighty kind of them.”

“In exchange I had to make them money from robot fighting.”

“What?”

“You know, illegal fighting pits involving robots and omnics? Yeah, I got tossed into them.” She offered her words nonchalantly and carefully held her chopsticks in her mouth as she attended briefly to her game. When she looked up, both men were staring at her. “Did I at any point say they are good people? One was more like a rat high on drugs with dynamite strapped to his chest, while the other was a giant who only wanted to keep his employer alive to get paid.”

McCree made a surprised sound that made Hana’s brow furrow. “What?”

“That actually sounds similiar to the description Bridgette give.”

“Holy shit she meet Junkrat and Roadhog?” She bounced on the bed. “Hey so! What are the chances that I can get Winston to bring them in?”

“What are the chances you can get those two to give up the life of being junkers?”

“Two words: Reinhardt’s Pancake.”

Hanzo grimaced. “I do not forsee a good outcome.”

“Booooo! Hanzo, give me a little more credit than that.”

“You may be able to convince them, in fact I have no doubt on it. But how are they going to help with Overwatch’s cause?”

“Firepower? I mean the guy may be absolutely insane but heck, he can make such good bombs! And Mako rivals Reinhardt in height. We could always use another scary old man.” She shrugged and shoved some more food in her mouth, swallowing just as fast so she could speak. “Or we could find that wrecking ball mech and see if it helps. I’m sure we could use another Omnic in our team.”

“Yeah... Nah little lady. They might be more trouble than they are worth. Leave them be.”

Hanzo didn’t know how they managed to converse together so normally. At least as normal as it could be. He could feel the cowboy’s gaze on him periodically, studying him almost. He tried not to take notice, focusing solely on Hana’s story and his bowl of rice.

Eventually the news of Hanzo’s awakening to spread through the rest of the base. Soon after they finished their breakfast Dr. Zeigler entered the room and ordered everyone out so she could perform her check-up. Hana and McCree left, takin all the empty plates and such, but Yui stayed. The doctor glared at her and tried in every way to get her off the bed. Nothing worked; the wolf simply stared back at her, unblinking and defiant. Eventually the doctor gave up and went through the routine with Yui observing on the bed.

Hanzo felt a bit sorry for her. Despite what he had done, she had treated him as cordially as possible, particularly given her past with Genji. She still stared at him whenever he was interacting with Genji, but that was reasonable. Yui was not as hostile towards her as she was with Mccree, but she never seemed to warm up to the doctor either.

Soon doctor Zeigler finished with her check-up. She wanted him to stay for a few more days in the ward for observation, to make sure there were no other effects from the poison shot. That was immediately met with a dangerous growl from Yui, forcing Hanzo to shush her.

“Doctor Zeigler I do not feel any other ill effects, I much prefer to recover in my own room.” He said calmly. Face not once betraying how uncomfortable the thought of being bed ridden in the medical ward made him feel. Particularly under the watchful eyes of someone not so happy at his presence and another who gots agitated in the ward and who was overly protective.

The doctor looked exasperated, as if this was a common occurrence in her life. “Shimada-san, your liver is in a bad shape and I do not know if the poison has been completely cleaned out of your system. It’s my duty to make sure that everyone is well.”

Hanzo nodded, but he had not given up yet. “Would it be acceptable for me to come in for daily check-ups instead?”

She stared at him long and then at Yui. It seemed she also understood the implication of confining him to the medical ward. “Very well. But I must stress that you rest for the week and not go through any strenuous exercise. No missions and no training.”

Hanzo grimaced. That left him with very little to do. Yui however seemed satisfied with the assessment. They both bowed politely to the doctor and she did the same. She quickly retreated back to her office, clearly eager to get back to whatever work that had been interrupted this morning.

Yui quickly hopped off the bed and did a brief scan of the room. Putting her ear to each wall to make sure of where everyone was. After making sure everyone had finally left, Yui jumped on to the bed and hissed in Japanese, “<you can’t be serious in taking that asshole’s apology.>”

He couldn’t help but snap back, being mindful enough to keep his voice very low. “<He shouldn’t need to apologize in the first place. What McCree did was all within reason.>”

Her hackles raised and fell out of shape as her features changed with her loss of control. “<He antagonized you for months. About something that happened years ago, that was none his business. Something your brother forgave you for!>”

“<It was fratricide.>”

“<He put a fucking gun to your head.>”

At this point, Yui no longer resembled a wolf, rather an amalgamation of wolf, human and mist. The only thing that was solid and true were her golden eyes staring at him - with fire, worry, and frustration. Hanzo stared back without fear. He knew he was right, that the cowboy had not and did not mean harm to him. Even if he was wrong, Hanzo didn’t feel so bad. He had seen McCree interact with Genji, he had been a better brother than he could ever have been... and he wouldn’t mind dying to someone that handsome.

He regretted that thought crossing his mind the moment it happened. As suddenly Yui pulled back. She paused, blinking owlishly at him. “<Oh dear heavens so that’s why you are so lenient towards him.>”

“<What...?>” he asked, even though in the back of his mind he was already preparing for Yui’s reaction.

She took a breath, solidifying her form, before speaking in her best neutral matter-of-fact tone. “<You my boy, have a fucking crush on the cowboy.>”

Hanzo felt his face grew hot instantly. “<I do not!>” he hissed.

“<I have eyes Hanzo.>” She pinched the area between her eyes. “<Damn it! This explains so, _so_ much. Why you want to hang with him and keep picking the same times in the shooting gallery. Why you have never said a bad thing about him, even when I know some of his habits should drive you up the wall. And not to mention how much time you spend staring at him and then looking away when he looked at you. >”

Hanzo groaned and pushed at her, ignoring the fact his hand met only mist. “<This is ridiculous.>” He mumbled, crossing his arms. “<I am not a high schooler who gets crushes.>”

“<To be fair you did missed out on the normal high school years. Where you get to play games, pursue hobbies and live with minimum responsibility.>” Yui sat back properly, shaking her head. “<Look Hanzo I am not in any way saying you getting a crush is bad. It’s normal. It’s fine. He’s the man you picked. But why that asshole? He physically threatened you!>”

Now it was Hanzo’s turn to shake his head. “<It doesn’t matter. This will pass>.” He had no hope for McCree ever consider returning his feelings. The fact he was willing to restart and make nice  was a miracle that he was not sure he fully deserved. Nor was it something he was willing risk for something as silly as a one-sided crush. “<Besides... You were the ones who wanted me to have more friends.>”

“<I just...>” Yui let out her breath and slumped on the bed. “<I’m not okay with you wanting to make friends with someone who would be so quick to put a gun barrel to your head.>”

“<He wanted a change. It will be better this time.>”

Yui still looked unconvinced, though she seemed calm enough to solidify into a single shape again. “<Just please stay safe.>” she said, almost begging.

Hanzo couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “<Okay. Okay.>”

“<No.>” She shifted as she moved forward, holding his face in her hands. “<Promise me you will keep yourself safe.>”

He could see the fear in her eyes, and before he could chastise her about her over protectiveness, he remembered the stories that Yui had share with him. They had started out happy, of the days past where she had taken care of children of varying ages in varying time periods. Sometimes, she couldn’t remember what happened to her adopted children, but she know they had lived a good lives. Those she did remember, were regrets she had held onto through all through her long years – like Elizabeth. She was afraid for him just like she had been for her other children.

Hanzo breathed out through his nose, grasping for her arm and looked at her. “<Okay. I promise.>” He said with all the sincerity that he could put into his words.

Yui stared at him long and hard. Then finally let out a breath and pulled him closer into a hug. Hanzo didn’t comment on the tightness of it, or when she kissed his forehead. She shifted fully into a wolf and laid down on the end of the bed. Signifying the end of the conversation.

For now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone had a good Halloween = w=)/
> 
> Thank LastSorceress for betaing this chapter! <3
> 
> My Tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com  
> LastSorceress’ Tumblr: https://elmartblog.tumblr.com


	22. A Mother’s Instinct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When multiple instinct conflict...

Life was slowly returning to normal on the base. At least as normal as it could be for a vigilante organisation. Hanzo was cleared to go back on missions and to training within the week. Angela was quite surprised that Hanzo actually listened to her instructions and had taken time off. Yui could feel Hanzo glaring the moment the doctor turned her back on them. Yui just smiled. He knew he shouldn’t be in the training rooms and she would do anything to drag him out of there. Including stealing his bow and hiding it or worse handing it over to Genji and lying on top of him so he wouldn’t get up the sofa.  
  
The moment the doctor cleared him, Hanzo immediately went for an hour long training session to make up for the time he’d missed. Now with Genji knowing Yui’s secret he happily joined in on the sparring session asking Yui to keep score. He hoped with his cybernetics that he could finally best his brother in hand to hand combat. He failed however, Hanzo was just more well-versed and precise than he was; and no amount of extra power from a machine could match that.  
  
It didn’t start out that way. In the beginning Hanzo was unsure how he should proceed, never comfortable asking the extent of Genji’s cybernetics and thus was a little too scared of hurting his brother. Of course after giving away three starting points, some goading from Genji, and reassurance from Yui that she would make sure neither of them went too far, his competitive streak kicked in. After that he completely floored Genji for the next seven matches.  
  
Just as Genji conceded defeat – pressed down into the mat with Hanzo’s knee on his back and his arm twisted in a hold. Yui stood up and stretched out. “Alright that’s the tenth match. Hanzo won.”  
  
Instantly Hanzo let go and let Genji flop to the floor with a thud. Out of petty vengeance he kicked at his brother’s legs, but since they were prosthetics,all he got for his effort was one loud clang that hurt everyone’s ears. Hanzo did his best not to wince, and glare at Genji still lying on the mat. They both turned to Yui and said in unison, “one more time.”

She just chuckled and shook her head. “No. It’s lunch time.” Carefully she wedged herself between the two. “You two can restart this later.” Both boys opened their lips to start argue with her, so she put her paw down. “Hanzo you just got cleared by medbay don’t rush yourself back in there and Genji, don’t you have to meet up with Zenyatta later?”  
  
“Oh shit!” The cybrog scrambled up and rushed out of the room - almost crashing into McCree.  
  
“Woah there! You almost forgot about Zenny?” McCree chuckled.  
  
“Oh shut up.” Genji snapped before dodging aside and dashing down the corridor.  
  
McCree shook his head and stopped at the doorway. He paused for a while, surprised by Hanzo’s presence – or his perfectly toned body. Yui was not blind and could see where the man's eyes were looking. Either way it took him a few moments to find his tongue again. “Howdy.” He said lightly. “Did I guess right? Did Genji forget about his meeting?”  
  
Hanzo sighed. “Yes. It seems he has not gotten any more punctual over the years.”  
  
“Yeah. If it wasn’t for Zenny he would be late for most of the meetings.” He chuckled. “By the way, the team was thinking of going to town for lunch. Do you want to come?”  
  
“Of course. Allow me to change my clothing first.”  
  
McCree finger-gunned out of the room, and Hanzo couldn’t hide his laugher behind his hand as McCree left the room. Yui made sure to keep her muzzle firmly shut. Any words that she wanted to say she swallowed back. Hanzo had an expression of such joy that she didn’t dare to say anything; she couldn’t be mad about it either. It was a lot of effort for Hanzo to relax, even more for him to trust – and that had been her. Now, here he was finally making friends; repairing his relationship with his little brother and… he seemed to be genuinely happy. That made her happy.  
  
The only thing that annoyed her was how friendly he was with the cowboy.  
  
After the incident and the apology at the medbay, the cowboy seemed to be trying his best to be nicer. There were no more harsh words or suspicious glances, and more invitations to drinks - even to the shooting range for a friendly competition. Genji was delighted that his best friend was on better terms with his brother. Yui couldn’t give the same enthusiasm, not when she had been staring at a gun barrel in the storeroom. Not when her heart was thundering in her ears and she was afraid that she had sent Hanzo into the fireline by accident. She could not get that out of her head. She could not forget the threat the cowboy posed! But at the same time she couldn’t rain on Hanzo, not after what he had gone through at the hands of his father, so she kept her thoughts to herself. She let the boys be happy... that should have been enough.  
  
She wasn’t the only one that noticed the change in McCree’s attitude. Yui noted how Ana was smiling behind her cup as McCree casually rambled to Hanzo at the breakfast table. Likewise Hana did her best to sneak in a few photos with her phone, creating a folder specifically named ‘grumpy dragon smiling’. The rest of the team seemed to be glad that the awkward tension between the two had gone away.  
  
It was inevitable that someone would think that now that the two of them were no longer so hostile towards each other it would be a good idea to stick them together for a mission. This led to them to realizing how good the two of them worked together. Their skills complemented one another naturally. Hanzo could snipe better knowing his flank was covered by McCree, and whenever the cowboy needed to sneak in deeper into enemy territory he know the dragon could see him from far above. It led to Winston and Soldier assigning more missions for them together. Sometimes it was just the two of them alone, deep into enemy territory.  
  
Yui was not happy about it but she couldn’t say anything. Not to Genji; if he found out that his brother was crushing on his best friend she felt that the bratty little brother in him would resurface, and it was best to avoid that for now. Athena would not understand and she would not openly vent to the AI. She didn’t want to confuse the system with complex feelings just yet. Thus Yui could do nothing but sulk underneath the kitchen table listening to the mission reports coming in from Ana’s comm, and she had Athena patch the messages that were coming into the base.  
  
Most of the others were spread out around the base leaving the kitchen rather quiet. Some groups were sent out to missions, and one such group just so happened to be made up of Hanzo, Genji, Lucio and McCree. She tried to sneak on to the mission, but this time Ana caught her by her scruff until the plane took off and flew away. It left her with nothing for her to do but wait for their return. She ended up following Ana to the kitchen to wait under the table. She tried to sleep, certain it would make time pass faster, and her mind couldn’t run through the worst case scenarios if she wasn’t conscious.  
  
“How do you like your tea? I don’t know what shapeshifters like to drink,” Ana asked casually as she took two cups out of the cupboard. The kettle on the stove started to whistle softly.  
  
Yui snapped awake, but it took awhile for her mind to catch up to what was being said. She let out a deep weary sigh, “how long have you known?”  
  
“Quite some time. You really aren’t putting that much effort in hiding.” The old woman chuckled. “Now would you come out from under the table? Sulking is unbefitting of you.”  
  
She didn’t crawl out of from under the table just yet. The base was not empty and she was putting some effort into hiding her secret. Ana however, seemed to guess exactly what she was thinking.  
  
“Athena would you inform us if anyone is coming to the kitchen?”  
  
A smooth voice echoed from above. “Affirmative.”  
  
Yui smiled, “thank you.”

With that assurance she finally got out from underneath the table and stood up. She did not shift completely into a human, as she couldn’t be bothered to make that much of a transformation. “Let me sulk. My boy is making friends with a bad one.” She sighed and helped, taking the tea set to the table. Yui took the opportunity to have a sniff of the tea. It was something rather sweet, perhaps a special desert blend. She hadn’t been to Cairo for a bit and she would have loved to go visit Thoth and Horus once in a while.  
  
Ana measured scooped out the leaves for the tea pot. “Oh Jesse can’t be that bad.”  
  
“He pointed a gun at Hanzo.” She stated the words with the most deadpan expression she could manage with a wolf’s head.  
  
“As he did to Gabe, Jack and me... Very paranoid that boy. I doubt that it’ll come out of him at his age.” She shrugged and poured the hot water into the pot.  
  
“Hmph. Don’t say you wouldn’t be this protective if someone pointed a gun at Fareeha or the cowboy.” Yui settled down in a chair, carefully shifting enough to fit into the seat without snapping it underneath her. It surprised her somewhat that Ana had not demanded that she reveal her true form or even asked her to change to something more normal. She found herself very thankful of that.  
  
“Fareeha and Jesse can handle themselves just fine. But yes I suppose you are right.” Ana sighed as she poured out the tea for them both. Yui left hers alone to cool while Ana immediately sipped the hot tea. It seemed she was not done with chiding the wolf for her behaviour however. “Although I would be definitely be less vindictive towards him.”  
  
Yui snorted, “I regret nothing. I will cool off depending on how he acts in the future, but don’t expect it to happen any time soon.”  
  
Ana chuckled, shaking her head. “Have you voiced your opinion to Hanzo yet?”  
  
“Once and I don’t want to do it again.” She sipped her tea, the temperature was still hot enough to burn the tip of her muzzle. “Have you heard from Genji what their family life was like?” Ana nodded and Yui continued. “I try not to do anything that lets him slip back to old habits; bad habits. I just got to trust him to keep himself safe but...”  
  
“Mother’s instinct.” Ana nodded, understanding.  
  
Yui deflated. “Fighting every other instinct and logic...” she huffed. This always seemed to happen. On one hand she knew it was silly and the chance of something bad happening was incredibly low, but at the same time she couldn’t help but worry. At the very least she knew not to show it as often as she felt it. Especially to her charges, the one who also have the same anxious disposition as her.  
  
Ana smiled and gave her a comforting pat. “I’m glad Fareeha has never caused me this much trouble.” Well at least _this kind_ of trouble.  
  
At that Yui howled with laughter. “I thought she would with the way she keeps flirting with all the singles here.” It was kind of hilarious for her to watch. One time Fareeha had to run a corner to hide her flustered smile only to discover it was the same corner that Yui was sitting at, quietly overhearing the conversation. She had gotten even more flustered, sitting there trying poorly to explain herself to a wolf in Arabic.  
  
“She is a disaster let’s be real. Lucio was just polite enough to ignore the bad pick-up lines. Hana laughed at her too mercilessly for her to try again.” She was pretty sure that those lines were taught to her by Jesse; something she would need to talk to him about later. “Angela flirted back one time and my poor girl got so flustered she short-circuited her jet suit and got stuck in the medbay. Brigitte was too preoccupied with her work to take notice of the flirting.”  
  
“Oh dear. Hopefully she can get her act together to ask one them out instead of indiscriminately flirting.” In a few more days an ex-Vishkar architect would be arriving on base and judging by the picture it was another beauty that Fareeha might try her hand at courting.  
  
“I have told her this but she tries to deny it in the usual way; yelling loudly while clasping her hands over her ears, and trying to run away. It has almost become more amusing than exasperating.” She poured herself another cup as she finished the one in her hand. “Would you like to hear how she one time attempted to practice flirting in the mirror and didn’t notice Angela or me until it was too late?”  
  
Yui smiled. “Oh dear that doesn’t sound like a fair trade.” An image flash across her mind, but she quickly pushed it aside. She wouldn’t be able to remember it and she didn’t want to sour the mood. It was clear Ana was trying to keep her out of her bad thoughts; she did the same for Hanzo sometimes, so she wasn’t about to undo Ana’s effort. She racked her brains trying to remember the good stuff, the early stuff. “I can trade you some embarrassing stories of my charges in exchange.”  
  
Ana raised her eyebrows, but the expression was soon replaced with a cheeky smile. “Does that include Hanzo?”  
  
“Of course.” She hadn’t said it in front of his face but she would adopt Hanzo in a heartbeat, and Genji too.  
  
“And Genji?”  
  
Yui shrugged. “All of Genji’s story I know was heard from Hanzo I have no idea how wild he really was back then.”  
  
“During Blackwatch he was a violent little boy. Rarely said anything. He usually responded by flipping people off. He only really responded to a small group of people.”  
  
“I’m guessing that cowboy. You and Gabriel Reyes.”  
  
“Well everyone seemed to like McCree by the time Genji arrived. He started to loosen up, cracking joke and being flirty. He was the one that put in an effort to make the young man feel welcome and at home. Almost risked getting cut several times for the effort. I guess when he Isn’t a bundle of paranoid nerves he can be quite charming, to an extent he even has a way of getting into people’s good grace.”  
  
“We’ll see about that,” Yui muttered quietly. She had managed to hate a certain slimy fictional wizard for nearly a century; it shouldn’t be hard to hold a grudge against one annoying cowboy. “In your case, I know perfectly well why people listen to you.” Her tail tapped the pistol she still had holstered on her belt. “The only person I don’t know well is Gabriel Reyes.”  
  
Ana sighed through her nose. “The Blackwatch commander, both Genji and McCree’s superior.”  
  
The name was not something common in the news unlike the Overwatch’s counterpart, and it was not in a good light either. Being discovered during a mission in Rialto and calling into question Overwatch’s power and reliability. It caused rules to be enforced and politics to enter an organisation that only wanted to do good. Yui tried to find out more about it after the night Genji was telling stories about his Blackwatch days.  
  
He was stern but also fair, a kind gruffness and playfulness that was a far cry from the Overwatch commander. He seemed to be both a drama queen and a deadpan snarker, the only one who could get the commander to breakdown into snorting giggle. She had heard he was incredibly wasteful with his equipment, Yui couldn’t quite understand what Genji mean by that. He couldn’t possibly just throw away a whole set of shotguns after just one shot each right?  
  
All of the cybrog’s stories were patchy and probably heavily biased so she had no clear idea of what the man was like. Official records were mostly locked and Athena had made it clear that if she wanted to know more she would have to ask Winston to give her authorisation; which meant telling him that she wasn’t just a wolf. Thankfully she had another source.  
  
“The most I have learned about that man is from his husband,” she said.  
  
Ana snorted, “not surprising to me. Jack misses him a lot.”  
  
“I know! Because he vented to me a lot about it.”  
  
By that she meant it was mostly the old soldier spotting her, quickly checking the area before cooing to her to try and get her to come. As a good actor Yui was obliged to accept the treatment. She wasn’t all that fond of the belly rubs, though she could appreciate a good head scratch and petting, but that was what got the old soldier to loosen up. Enough so that he would remove his mask to reveal that he was Jack Morrison, the former commander of Overwatch. Yui was fairly certain almost everyone on base knew this but had decided to let the old man have his coping method. Or maybe the visor was to help his failing vision, it was hard to tell.  
  
He vented to her about everything. How the he struggled not to take command, his old habits creeping up out of a desire to help Winston out. The large gorilla had never been all that good at trying to organise a big group properly. He vented about the fact he tried and be nice to the new member but his voice was completely shot from the explosion at the Swiss base. It had already been an unfriendly deep tone but now it has a gravel one that he couldn’t shake off and made everything sound more hostile than he intended. However the one that he always grumbled about was his husband. How he would go off to do his own things, leaving him behind to try and hold back the questions. He wanted to follow him and fight by his side, but in the end he was elected poster boy and pretty much chained to a desk. Despite whatever he vented about his husband however, he would always end with comments about missing him before ruffling her fur one more time and going off somewhere.  
  
Ana laughed. “Good to see Jack is still dense enough to not know he is rubbing the belly of a shapeshifter.”  
  
“Oh Ana come on. I pose as a pretty good wolf.” She casually put up another kettle, since the pot of tea they had was draining rather steadily.  
  
“A little too intelligent. I suspect some other people also know about it but chose to say nothing.” She sipped her tea and top off her cup along with Yui’s. “If you want to keep acting, trying dumbing it down a bit.”  
  
“I’m pretty sure rolling in Torbjorn’s garden was a good sign.” The hit from the wrench hurt but it was worth it to stop him from realising that she had been killing some of the pests that were assaulting the tomato plants.  
  
“Hiding stuff in his compost heap isn’t. And he noticed the lack of pests invading his plants. He thought it was Athena and Bastion’s doing.” The omnic had taken a liking to gardening and would often spend all their free time in the small garden patch tending to the plants. Sometimes to the point that grass and weeds began to grow all over him and required the Lindholms to go through heavily weeding session on the omnic. _Repeatedly._  
  
The conversation flowed on from one topic to the next. Ana shared the stories of Fareeha pranking the original Overwatch members as well as Blackwatch, ranging from hiding cigarettes to putting live critters in closets. Yui shared the time she was in Iran while Khosrau ruled, watching her charge become keeper of the grand library, and then had almost gotten jailed for indecent act in the barracks - which she did not want to go into detail about. She changed her mind little later when Ana explained why she called that white beat up couch in the rec room disgusting.  
  
It was peaceful, and a nice distraction from the anxiety of this mission. They did it again the next day, and the day after that as well. So far the conversation had only been broken apart by smooth ping from Athena when someone was approaching the kitchen, which had Yui quickly switching fully into her wolf form to greet them with slobber. Occasionally Athena called for her to deal with pests that had wiggled themselves into her panels.

The only surprise during the week was a phone call from Hanzo. Their safe house was haunted but by the sound of it, though not by poltergeist or any malicious sort of spirit. It was strange that he was asking for help; going through Athena no less. She made no comment about it however, offering her advice to the archer and returning to Ana straight after, fondly swapping more stories of their children. It was what they both cared for the most.  
  
Soon the days had passed and the team returned from their mission. To Yui’s dismay Hanzo seemed to have gotten a lot closer to McCree. They walked side by side down the ORCA chatting softly. Hanzo had a content smile on his face that she rarely had a chance to see.  
  
Yui sighed. She should be angry with Hanzo, in more than one way. However... The fact that the ever stoic and up-tight man she had found in the woods had fallen in love with a scruffy cowboy was beyond adorable. It was good, good that Hanzo finally had a reason to make friends and get closer to people. To care deeply about other’s well-being. What she didn’t like, it shouldn’t affect his progress.  
  
So she said nothing, just trampled down all her worries and observed. She greeted them like usual with enthusiastic licks for those she liked and long-suffering huffs to the ones she didn’t. There was nothing else she could do nothing but be as supportive as she was and not let them worry about her. If somehow the cowboy reciprocated Hanzo’s feeling she shouldn’t get in the way of it, no matter what prejudice she held for the cowboy.  
  
If it was meant to be, it would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Switching to Hanzo's perspective! Meaning the 10K+ Chapter that happened because of ghosts
> 
> Again much love and thanks to LastSorceress who help me fix my grammar problems  
> o wo)7
> 
> My Tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com  
> LastSorceress’ Tumblr: https://elmartblog.tumblr.com


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